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LIFE 


OF 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


BY 


NATHANIEL  HJ.WTHORNE, 


BOSTON: 

TICKNOR,  REED,  AND  FIELDS. 

M DCCC  LII. 


O 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1852,  by 
Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 

In  the  Clerk’s  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


STEREOTYPED  AT  THE 


BOSTON  STEREOTYPE  FOUNDRY. 


vr//*/ 9 % 

n'vA'X 

■/S  °o 


, R £5. 17?) 

PREF  ACE. 


The  author  of  this  memoir  — being  so  little  of  a poli- 
tician that  he  scarcely  feels  entitled  to  call  himself  a mem- 
ber of  any  party  — would  not  voluntarily  have  undertaken 
the  work  here  offered  to  the  public.  Neither  can  he  flatter 
himself  that  he  has  been  remarkably  successful  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  task,  viewing  it  in  the  light  of  a political 
biography,  and  as  a representation  of  the  principles  and 
acts  of  a public  man,  intended  to  operate  upon  the  minds 
of  multitudes,  during  a presidential  canvass.  This  species 
of  writing  is  too  remote  from  his  customary  occupations 

— and,  he  may  add,  from  his  tastes  — to  be  very  satisfac- 
torily done,  without  more  time  and  practice  than  he  would 
be  willing  to  expend  for  such  a purpose.  If  this  little 
biography  have  any  value,  it  is  probably  of  another  kind 

— as  the  narrative  of  one  who  knew  the  individual  of 
whom  he  treats,  at  a period  of  life  when  character  could 
be  read  with  undoubting  accuracy,  and  who,  consequently, 
in  judging  of  the  motives  of  his  subsequent  conduct,  has 
an  advantage  over  much  more  competent  observers,  whose 
knowledge  of  the  man  may  have  commenced  at  a later 
date.  Nor  can  it  be  considered  improper,  (at  least  the 
author  will  never  feel  it  so,  although  some  foolish  delicacy 
be  sacrificed  in  the  undertaking,)  that  when  a friend,  dear 
to  him  almost  from  boyish  days,  stands  up  before  his  coun- 
try, misrepresented  by  indiscriminate  abuse,  on  the  one 


4 


PREFACE. 


hand,  and  by  aimless  praise,  on  the  other,  lie  should  be 
sketched  by  one  who  has  had  opportunities  of  knowing 
him  well,  and  who  is  certainly  inclined  to  tell  the  truth. 

It  is  perhaps  right  to  say,  that  while  this  biography  is 
so  far  sanctioned  by  General  Pierce,  as  it  comprises  a 
generally  correct  narrative  of  the  principal  events  of  his 
life,  the  author  does  not  understand  him  as  thereby  neces- 
sarily indorsing  all  the  sentiments  put  forth  by  himself, 
in  the  progress  of  the  work.  These  are  the  author’s  own 
speculations  upon  the  facts  before  him,  and  may,  or  may 
not,  be  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  the  individual 
whose  life  he  writes.  That  individual’s  opinions,  however, 
— so  far  as  it  is  necessary  to  know  them,  — may  be  read, 
in  his  straightforward  and  consistent  deeds,  with  more 
certainty  than  those  of  almost  any  other  man  now  before 
the  public. 

The  author,  while  collecting  his  materials,  has  received 
liberal  aid  from  all  manner  of  people  — whigs  and  demo- 
crats, congressmen,  astute  lawyers,  grim  old  generals  of 
militia,  and  gallant  young  officers  of  the  Mexican  war  — 
most  of  whom,  however,  he  must  needs  say,  have  rather 
abounded  in  eulogy  of  General  Pierce,  than  in  such  anec- 
dotical  matter  as  is  calculated  for  a biography.  Among 
the  gentlemen  to  whom  he  is  substantially  indebted,  he 
would  mention  Hon.  C.  G.  Atherton,  Hon.  S.  H.  Ayer, 
Hon.  Joseph  Hall,  Chief  Justice  Gilchrist,  Isaac  O.  Barnes, 
Esq.,  Col.  T.  J.  Whipple,  and  Mr.  C.  J.  Smith.  He  has 
likewise  derived  much  assistance  from  an  able  and  accurate 
sketch,  that  originally  appeared  in  the  Boston  Post,  and 
was  drawn  up,  as  he  believes,  by  the  junior  editor  of  that 
journal. 

Concord,  (Mass.,)  August  27,  1852. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

HIS  PARENTAGE  AND  EARLY  LIFE 7 

CHAPTER  II. 

HIS  SERVICES  IN  THE  STATE  AND  NATIONAL  LEGISLA- 
TURES,   19 

CHAPTER  III. 

HIS  SUCCESS  AT  THE  BAR, 49 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR.— HIS  JOURNAL  OF  THE  MARCH 

FROM  VERA  CRUZ, ,66 

CHAPTER  V. 

HIS  SERVICES  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  MEXICO 95 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  COMPROMISE  AND  OTHER  MATTERS, 109 

CHAPTER  VII. 

HIS  NOMINATION  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY, 128 


NOTE  A, 139 

NOTE  B, 140 

1* 


223943 


.. 


LIFE 

OF 

FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

HIS  PARENTAGE  AND  EARLY  LIFE. 

Franklin  Pierce  was  bom  at  Hillsborough,  in 
the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  on  the  23d  of  No- 
vember, 1804.  His  native  county,  at  the  period 
of  his  birth,  covered  a much  more  extensive  ter- 
ritory than  at  present,  and  might  reckon  among 
its  children  many  memorable  men,  and  some  illus- 
trious ones.  General  Stark,  the  hero  of  Benning- 
ton, Daniel  Webster,  Levi  Woodbury,  Jeremiah 
Smith,  the  eminent  jurist,  and  governor  of  the 
state,  General  James  Miller,  General  McNeil,  Sen- 
ator Atherton,  were  natives  of  old  Hillsborough 
county. 

General  Benjamin  Pierce,  the  father  of  Frank- 
lin, was  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  in  the  town 
of  Hillsborough,  and  contributed  as  much  as  any 
other  man  to  the  growth  and  prosperity  of  the 
county.  He  was  born  in  1757,  at  Chelmsford, 
now  Lowell,  in  Massachusetts.  Losing  his  parents 


8 


LIFE  OF 


early,  he  grew  up  under  the  care  of  an  uncle,  amid 
such  circumstances  of  simple  fare,  hard  labor,  and 
scanty  education  as  usually  fell  to  the  lot  of 
a New  England  yeoman’s  family  some  eighty  or 
a hundred  years  ago.  On  the  19th  of  April,  1775, 
being  then  less  than  eighteen  years  of  age,  the  strip- 
ling was  at  the  plough,  when  tidings  reached  him 
of  the  bloodshed  at  Lexington  and  Concord.  He 
immediately  loosened  the  ox  chain,  left  the  plough 
in  the  furrow,  took  his  uncle’s  gun  and  equipments, 
and  set  forth  towards  the  scene  of  action.  From 
that  day,  for  more  than  seven  years,  he  never 
saw  his  native  place.  He  enlisted  in  the  army, 
was  present  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  and  after 
serving  through  the  whole  revolutionary  war,  and 
fighting  his  way  upward  from  the  lowest  grade, 
returned,  at  last,  a thorough  soldier,  and  com- 
mander of  a company.  He  was  retained  in  the 
army  as  long  as  that  body  of  veterans  had  a 
united  existence ; and,  being  finally  disbanded, 
at  West  Point,  in  1784,  was  left  with  no  other 
reward,  for  nine  years  of  toil  and  danger,  than 
the  nominal  amount  of  his  pay  in  the  Continental 
currency  — then  so  depreciated  as  to  be  almost 
worthless. 

In  1785,  being  employed  as  agent  to  explore  a 
tract  of  wild  land,  he  purchased  a lot  of  fifty  acres 
in  what  is  now  the  town  of  Hillsborough.  In  the 
spring  of  the  succeeding  year,  he  built  himself  a 
log  hut,  and  began  the  clearing  and  cultivation  of 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


9 


his  tract.  Another  year  beheld  him  married  to  his 
first  wife,  Elizabeth  Andrews,  who  died  within  a 
twelvemonth  after  their  union,  leaving  a daughter, 
the  present  widow  of  General  John  McNeil.  In 
1789,  he  married  Anna  Kendrick,  with  whom  he 
lived  about  half  a century,  and-  who  bore  him 
eight  children,  of  whom  Franklin  was  the  sixth. 

Although  the  revolutionary  soldier  had  thus  be- 
taken himself  to  the  wilderness  for  a subsistence, 
his  professional  merits  were  not  forgotten  by  those 
who  had  witnessed  his  military  career.  As  early 
as  1786,  he  was  appointed  brigade  major  of  the 
militia  of  Hillsborough  county,  then  first  organized 
and  formed  into  a brigade.  And  it  was  a still 
stronger  testimonial  to  his  character  as  a soldier, 
that,  nearly  fifteen  years  afterwards,  during  the 
presidency  of  John  Adams,  he  was  offered  a high 
command  in  the  northern  division  of  the  army 
which  was  proposed  to  be  levied  in  anticipation 
of  a war  with  the  French  republic.  Inflexibly 
democratic  in  his  political  faith,  however,  Major 
Pierce  refused  to  be  implicated  in  a policy  which 
he  could  not  approve.  “ No,  gentlemen,”  said  he 
to  the  delegates,  who  urged  his  acceptance  of  the 
commission,  “ poor  as  I am,  and  acceptable  as 
would  be  the  position  under  other  circumstances, 
I would  sooner  go  to  yonder  mountains,  dig  me 
a cave,  and  five  on  roast  potatoes,  than  be  instru- 
mental in  promoting  the  objects  for  which  that 
army  is  to  be  raised  ! ” This  same  fidelity  to  his 


10 


LIFE  OF 


principles  marked  every  public,  as  well  as  private, 
action  of  his  life. 

In  his  own  neighborhood,  among  those  who 
knew  him  best,  he  early  gained  an  influence  that 
was  never  lost  nor  diminished,  but  continued  to 
spread  wider  during  the  whole  of  his  long  life.  In 
1789,  he  was  elected  to  the  state  legislature,  and 
retained  that  position  for  thirteen  successive  years, 
until  chosen  a member  of  the  council.  During 
the  same  period,  he  was  active  in  his  military 
duties,  as  a field  officer,  and  finally  general,  of  the 
militia  of  the  county ; and  Miller,  McNeil,  and 
others,  learned  of  him,  in  this  capacity,  the  soldier- 
like discipline  which  was  afterwards  displayed  on 
the  battle  fields  of  the  northern  frontier. 

The  history,  character,  and  circumstances  of 
General  Benjamin  Pierce,  though  here  but  briefly 
touched  upon,  are  essential  parts  of  the  biography 
of  his  son,  both  as  indicating  some  of  the  native 
traits  which  the  latter  has  inherited,  and  as  show- 
ing the  influences  amid  which  he  grew  up.  At 
Franklin  Pierce’s  birth,  and  for  many  years  sub- 
sequent, his  father  was  the  most  active  and  public- 
spirited  man  within  his  sphere ; a most  decided 
democrat,  and  supporter  of  Jefferson  and  Madison ; 
a practical  farmer,  moreover,  not  rich,  but  inde- 
pendent, exercising  a liberal  hospitality,  and  noted 
for  the  kindness  and  generosity  of  his  character; 
a man  of  the  people,  but  whose  natural  qualities 
inevitably  made  him  a leader  among  them.  From 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


11 


infancy  upward,  the  boy  had  before  his  eyes,  as  the 
model  on  which  he  might  instinctively  form  him- 
self, one  of  the  best  specimens  of  sterling  New 
England  character,  developed  in  a life  of  simple 
habits,  yet  of  elevated  action.  Patriotism,  such 
as  it  had  been  in  revolutionary  days,  was  taught 
him  by  his  father,  as  early  as  his  mother  taught 
him  religion.  He  became  early  imbued,  too,  with 
the  military  spirit  which  the  old  soldier  had  re- 
tained from  his  long  service,  and  which  was  kept 
active  by  the  constant  alarms  and  warlike  prep- 
arations of  the  first  twelve  years  of  the  present 
century.  If  any  man  is  bound,  by  birth  and 
youthful  training,  to  show  himself  a brave,  faith- 
ful, and  able  citizen  of  his  native  country,  it  is  the 
son  of  such  a father. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  of  1812, 
Franklin  Pierce  was  a few  months  under  eight 
years  of  age.  The  old  general,  his  father,  sent 
two  of  his  sons  into  the  army ; and,  as  his  eldest 
daughter  was  soon  afterwards  married  to  Major 
McNeil,  there  were  few  families  that  had  so  large 
a personal  stake  in  the  war  as  that  of  General 
Benjamin  Pierce.  He  himself,  both  in  his  public 
capacity  as  a member  of  the  council,  and  by  his 
great  local  influence  in  his  own  county,  lent  a 
strenuous  support  to  the  national  administration. 
It  is  attributable  to  his  sagacity  and  energy,  that 
New  Hampshire  — then  under  a federal  governor 
— was  saved  the  disgrace  of  participation  in  the 


12 


LIFE  OF 


questionable,  if  not  treasonable,  projects  of  the 
Hartford  Convention.  He  identified  himself  with 
the  cause  of  the  country,  and  was  doubtless  as 
thoroughly  alive  with  patriotic  zeal,  at  this  event- 
ful period,  as  in  the  old  days  of  Bunker  Hill,  and 
Saratoga,  and  Yorktown.  The  general  not  only 
took  a prominent  part  at  all  public  meetings,  but 
was  ever  ready  for  the  informal  discussion  of  po- 
litical affairs  at  all  places  of  casual  resort,  where  — 
in  accordance  with  the  custom  of  the  time  and 
country  — the  minds  of  men  were  made  to  operate 
effectually  upon  each  other.  Franklin  Pierce  was 
a frequent  auditor  of  these  controversies.  The  in- 
tentness with  which  he  watched  the  old  general, 
and  listened  to  his  arguments,  is  still  remembered ; 
and,  at  this  day,  in  his  most  earnest  moods,  there 
are  gesticulations  and  movements  that  bring  up 
the  image  of  his  father  to  those  who  recollect  the 
latter  on  those  occasions  of  the  display  of  homely, 
native  eloquence.  No  mode  of  education  could 
be  conceived,  better  adapted  to  imbue  a youth 
with  the  principles  and  sentiment  of  democratic 
institutions ; it  brought  him  into  the  most  familiar 
contact  with  the  popular  mind,  and  made  his  own 
mind  a part  of  it. 

Franklin’s  father  had  felt,  through  life,  the  dis- 
advantages of  a defective  education  ; although,  in 
his  peculiar  sphere  of  action,  it  might  be  doubted 
whether  he  did  not  gain  more  than  he  lost,  by  be- 
ing thrown  on  his  own  resources,  and  compelled 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


13 


to  study  men  and  their  actual  affairs,  rather  than 
books.  But  he  determined  to  afford  his  son  all 
the  opportunities  of  improvement,  which  he  him- 
self had  lacked.  Franklin,  accordingly,  was  early 
sent  to  the  academy  at  Hancock,  and  afterwards 
to  that  of  Francestown,  where  he  was  received  into 
the  family  of  General  Pierce’s  old  and  steadfast 
friend,  Peter  Woodbury,  father  of  the  late  eminent 
judge.  It  is  scarcely  more  than  a year  ago,  at  the 
semi-centennial  celebration  of  the  academy,  that 
Franklin  Pierce,  the  mature  and  distinguished  man, 
paid  a beautiful  tribute  to  the  character  of  Madam 
Woodbury,  in  affectionate  remembrance  of  the 
motherly  kindness  experienced  at  her  hands  by  the 
schoolboy. 

The  old  people  of  his  neighborhood  give  a very 
delightful  picture  of  Franklin  at  this  early  age. 
They  describe  him  as  a beautiful  boy,  with  blue 
eyes,  light  curling  hair,  and  a sweet  expression  of 
face.  The  traits  presented  of  him  indicate  moral 
symmetry,  kindliness,  and  a delicate  texture  of  sen- 
timent, rather  than  marked  prominences  of  char- 
acter. His  instructors  testify  to  his  propriety  of 
conduct,  his  fellow-pupils  to  his  sweetness  of  dis- 
position and  cordial  sympathy.  One  of  the  latter, 
being  older  than  most  of  his  companions,  and  less 
advanced  in  his  studies,  found  it  difficult  to  keep 
up  with  his  class  ; and  he  remembers  how  perse- 
veringly,  while  the  other  boys  were  at  play,  Frank- 
lin spent  the  noon  recess,  for  many  weeks  together, 
2 


14 


LIFE  OF 


in  aiding  him  in  his  lessons.  These  attributes, 
proper  to  a generous  and  affectionate  nature,  have 
remained  with  him  through  life.  Lending  their 
color  to  his  deportment,  and  softening  his  man- 
ners, they  are,  perhaps,  even  now,  the  character- 
istics by  which  most  of  those  who  casually  meet 
him  would  be  inclined  to  identify  the  man.  But 
there  are  other  qualities,  not  then  developed,  but 
which  have  subsequently  attained  a firm  and 
manly  growth,  and  are  recognized  as  his  leading 
traits  among  those  who  really  know  him.  Frank- 
lin Pierce’s  development,  indeed,  has  always  been 
the  reverse  of  premature  ; the  boy  did  not  show 
the  germ  of  all  that  was  in  the  man,  nor,  perhaps, 
did  the  young  man  adequately  foreshow  the  ma- 
ture one. 

In  1820,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  became  a stu- 
dent of  Bowdoin  College,  at  Brunswick,  Maine. 
It  was  in  the  autumn  of  the  next  year,  that  the 
author  of  this  memoir  entered  the  class  below  him  ; 
but  our  college  reminiscences,  however  interesting 
to  the  parties  concerned,  are  not  exactly  the  material 
for  a biography.  He  was  then  a youth,  with  the 
boy  and  man  in  him,  vivacious,  mirthful,  slender, 
of  a fair  complexion,  with  light  hair  that  had  a curl 
in  it : his  bright  and  cheerful  aspect  made  a kind 
of  sunshine,  both  as  regarded  its  radiance  and  its 
warmth  ; insomuch  that  no  shyness  of  disposition, 
in  his  associates,  could  well  resist  its  influence. 
We  soon  became  acquainted,  and  were  more 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


15 


especially  drawn  together  as  members  of  the  same 
college  society.  There  were  two  of  these  institu- 
tions, dividing  the  college  between  them,  and  typi- 
fying, respectively,  and  with  singular  accuracy  of 
feature,  the  respectable  conservative,  and  the  pro- 
gressive or  democratic  parties.  Pierce’s  native  ten- 
dencies inevitably  drew  him  to  the  latter. 

His  chum  was  Zenas  Caldwell,  several  years 
elder  than  himself,  a member  of  the  Methodist 
persuasion,  a pure-minded,  studious,  devoutly  re- 
ligious character  ; endowed  thus  early  in  life  with 
the  authority  of  a grave  and  sagacious  turn  of 
mind.  The  friendship  between  Pierce  and  him 
appeared  to  be  mutually  strong,  and  was  of  itself 
a pledge  of  correct  deportment  in  the  former.  His 
chief  friend,  I think,  was  a classmate  named  Little, 
a young  man  of  most  estimable  qualities,  and  high 
intellectual  promise ; one  of  those  fortunate  char- 
acters whom  an  early  death  so  canonizes  in  the 
remembrance  of  their  companions,  that  the  perfect 
fulfilment  of  a long  life  would  scarcely  give  them  a 
higher  place.  Jonathan  Cilley,  of  my  own  class,  — 
whose  untimely  fate  is  still  mournfully  remem- 
bered, — a person  of  very  marked  ability  and  great 
social  influence,  was  another  of  Pierce’s  friends. 
All  these  have  long  been  dead.  There  are  others, 
still  alive,  who  would  meet  Franklin  Pierce,  at  this 
day,  with  as  warm  a pressure  of  the  hand,  and  the 
same  confidence  in  his  kindly  feelings,  as  when 
they  parted  from  him,  nearly  thirty  years  ago. 


16 


LIFE  OF 


Pierce’s  jplass  was  small,  but  composed  of  indi- 
viduals seriously  intent  on  the  duties  and  studies 
of  their  college  life.  They  were  not  boys,  but,  for 
the  most  part,  well  advanced  towards  maturity  ; 
and,  having  wrought  out  their  own  means  of  edu- 
cation, were  little  inclined  to  neglect  the  opportu- 
nities that  had  been  won  at  so  much  cost.  They 
knew  the  value  of  time,  and  had  a sense  of  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  their  position.  Their  first  scholar 
— the  present  Professor  Stowe  — has  long  since 
established  his  rank  amoim  the  first  scholars  of  the 

o 

country.  It  could  have  been  no  easy  task  to  hold 
successful  rivalry  with  students  so  much  in  earnest 
as  these  were.  During  the  earlier  part  of  his  col- 
lege course,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  Pierce  was 
distinguished  for  scholarship.  But,  for  the  last 
two  years,  he  appeared  to  grow  more  intent  on  the 
business  in  hand,  and,  without  losing  any  of  his 
vivacious  qualities  as  a companion,  was  evidently 
resolved  to  gain  an  honorable  elevation  in  his  class. 
His  habits  of  attention,  and  obedience  to  qollege 
discipline,  were  of  the  strictest  character  ; he  rose 
progressively  in  scholarship,  and  took  a highly 
creditable  degree. 

The  first  civil  office,  I imagine,  which  Franklin 
Pierce  ever  held,  was  that  of  chairman  of  the 
standing  committee  of  the  Athenasan  Society,  of 
which,  as  above  hinted,  we  were  both  members  ; 
and,  having  myself  held  a place  on  the  commit- 
tee, I can  bear  testimony  to  his  having  discharged 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


17 


not  only  his  own  share  of  the  duties,  but  that  of 
his  colleagues.  I remember,  likewise,  that  the 
only  military  service  of  my  life  was  as  a private 
soldier  in  a college  company,  of  which  Pierce  was 
one  of  the  officers.  He  entered  into  this  latter 
business,  or  pastime,  with  an  earnestness  with 
which  I could  not  pretend  to  compete,  and  at 
which,  perhaps,  he  would  now  be  inclined  to  smile. 
His  slender  and  youthful  figure  rises  before  my 
mind’s  eye,  at  this  moment,  with  the  air  and  step 
of  a veteran  of  the  school  of  Steuben ; as  well 
became  the  son  of  a revolutionary  hero,  who  had 
probably  drilled  under  the  old  baron’s  orders.  In- 
deed, at  this  time,  and  for  some  years  afterwards, 
Pierce’s  ambition  seemed  to  be  of  a military  cast. 
Until  reflection  had  tempered  his  first  predilec- 
tions, and  other  varieties  of  success  had  rewarded 
his  efforts,  he  would  have  preferred,  I believe,  the 
honors  of  the  battle  field  to  any  laurels  more  peace- 
fully won.  And  it  was  remarkable  how,  with  all 
the  invariable  gentleness  of  his  demeanor,  he  per- 
fectly gave,  nevertheless,  the  impression  of  a high 
and  fearless  spirit.  His  friends  were  as  sure  of  his 
courage,  while  yet  untried,  as  now,  when  it  has 
been  displayed  so  brilliantly  in  famous  battles. 

At  this  early  period  of  his  life,  he  was  distin- 
guished by  the  same  fascination  of  manner  that 
has  since  proved  so  magical  in  winning  him  an 
unbounded  personal  popularity.  It  is  wronging 
him,  however,  to  call  this  peculiarity  a mere  effect 
2 * B 


18 


LIFE  OF 


of  manner ; its  source  lies  deep  in  the  kindliness 
of  his  nature,  and  in  the  liberal,  generous,  catholic 
sympathy,  that  embraces  all  who  are  worthy  of  it. 
Few  men  possess  any  thing  like  it;  so  irresistible 
as  it  is,  so  sure  to  draw  forth  an  undoubting  con- 
fidence, and  so  true  to  the  promise  which  it  gives. 
This  frankness,  this  democracy  of  good  feeling, 
has  not  been  chilled  by  the  society  of  politicians, 
nor  polished  down  into  mere  courtesy,  by  his  inter- 
course with  the  most  refined  men  of  the  day.  It 
belongs  to  him  at  this  moment,  and  will  never 
leave  him.  A little  while  ago,  after  his  return  from 
Mexico,  he  darted  across  the  street  to  exchange  a 
hearty  gripe  of  the  hand  with  a rough  countryman 
upon  his  cart  — a man  who  used  to  “live  with  his 
father,”  as  the  general  explained  the  matter  to  his 
companions.  Other  men  assume  this  manner,  more 
or  less  skilfully;  but  with  Frank  Pierce  it  is  an 
innate  characteristic ; nor  will  it  ever  lose  its  charm 
unless  his  heart  should  grow  narrower  and  colder 
— a misfortune  not  to  be  anticipated,  even  in  the 
dangerous  atmosphere  of  elevated  rank,  whither 
he  seems  destined  to  ascend. 

There  is  little  else  that  it  is  worth  while  to  relate, 
as  regards  his  college  course,  unless  it  be,  that, 
during  one  of  his  winter  vacations,  Pierce  taught 
a country  school.  So  many  of  the  statesmen  of 
New  England  have  performed  their  first  public  ser- 
vice in  the  character  of  pedagogue,  that  it  seems 
almost  a necessary  step  on  the  ladder  of  advance- 
ment. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


19 


CHAPTER  H. 

HIS  SERVICES  IN  THE  STATE  AND  NATIONAL  LEGISLA- 
TURES. 

After  leaving  college,  in  the  year  1824,  Frank- 
lin Pierce  returned  to  Hillsborough.  His  father, 
now  in  a green  old  age,  continued  to  take  a prom- 
inent part  in  the  affairs  of  the  day,  but  likewise 
made  his  declining  years  rich  and  picturesque  with 
recollections  of  the  heroic  times  through  which  he 
had  lived.  On  the  26th  of  December,  1825,  it  be- 
ing his  sixty-seventh  birthday,  General  Benjamin 
Pierce  prepared  a festival  for  his  comrades  in  arms, 
the  survivors  of  the  revolution,  eighteen  of  whom, 
all  inhabitants  of  Hillsborough,  assembled  at  his 
house.  The  ages  of  these  veterans  ranged  from 
fifty-nine  up  to  the  patriarchal  venerableness  of 
nearly  ninety.  They  spent  the  day  in  festivity,  in 
calling  up  reminiscences  of  the  great  men  whom 
they  had  known,  and  the  great  deeds  which  they  had 
helped  to  do,  and  in  reviving  the  old  sentiments 
of  the  era  of  seventy-six.  At  nightfall,  after  a 
manly  and  pathetic  farewell  from  their  host,  they 
separated  — “ prepared,”  as  the  old  general  ex- 
pressed it,  “ at  the  first  tap  of  the  shrouded  drum, 
to  move  and  join  their  beloved  Washington,  and 


20 


LIFE  OF 


the  rest  of  their  comrades,  who  fought  and  bled  at 
their  sides.”  A scene  like  this  must  have  been 
profitable  for  a young  man  to  witness,  as  being 
likely  to  give  him  a stronger  sense,  than  most  of 
us  can  attain,  of  the  value  of  that  Union  which 
these  old  heroes  had  risked  so  much  to  consolidate 
— of  that  common  country  which  they  had  sacri- 
ficed every  thing  to  create ; and  patriotism  must 
have  been  communicated  from  their  hearts  to  his, 
with  somewhat  of  the  warmth  and  freshness  of  a 
new-born  sentiment.  No  youth  was  ever  more 
fortunate  than  Franklin  Pierce,  through  the  whole 
of  his  early  life,  in  this  most  desirable  species  of 
moral  education. 

Having  chosen  the  law  as  a profession,  Franklin 
became  a student  in  the  office  of  Judge  Wood- 
bury, of  Portsmouth.  Allusion  has  already  been 
made  to  the  friendship  between  General  Benjamin 
Pierce  and  Peter  Woodbury,  the  father  of  the 
judge.  The  early  progress  of  Levi  Woodbury 
towards  eminence  had  been  facilitated  by  the  pow- 
erful influence  of  his  father’s  friend.  It  was  a 
worthy  and  honorable  kind  of  patronage,  and  be- 
stowed only  as  the  great  abilities  of  the  recipient 
vindicated  his  claim  to  it.  Few  young  men  have 
met  with  such  early  success  in  life,  or  have  de- 
served it  so  eminently,  as  did  Judge  Woodbury. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-seven,  he  was  appointed  to 
the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state,  on 
the  earnest  recommendation  of  old  General  Pierce. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


21 


The  opponents  of  the  measure  ridiculed  him  as 
the  “ baby  judge ; ” but  his  conduct  in  that  high 
office  showed  the  prescient  judgment  of  the  friend 
who  had  known  him  from  a child,  and  had  seen 
in  his  young  manhood  already  the  wisdom  of 
ripened  age.  It  was  some  years  afterwards  when 
Franklin  Pierce  entered  the  office  of  Judge  Wood- 
buxy  as  a student.  In  the  interval,  the  judge  had 
been  elected  governor,  and,  after  a term  of  office 
that  thoroughly  tested  the  integrity  of  his  demo- 
cratic principles,  had  lost  his  second  election,  and 
returned  to  the  profession  of  the  law. 

The  last  two  years  of  Pierce’s  preparatory  studies 
were  spent  at  the  law  school  of  Northampton,  in 
Massachusetts,  and  in  the  office  of  Judge  Parker 
at  Amherst.  In  1827,  being  admitted  to  the  bar, 
he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Hills- 
borough. It  is  an  interesting  fact,  considered  in 
reference  to  his  subsequent  splendid  career  as  an 
advocate,  that  he  did  not,  at  the  outset,  give  prom- 
ise of  distinguished  success.  His  first  case  was  a 
failure,  and  perhaps  a somewhat  marked  one.  But 
it  is  remembered  that  this  defeat,  however  mortify- 
ing at  the  moment,  did  but  serve  to  make  him 
aware  of  the  latent  resources  of  his  mind,  the  full 
command  of  which  he  was  far  from  having  yet 
attained.  To  a friend,  an  older  practitioner,  who 
addressed  him  with  some  expression  of  condolence 
and  encouragement,  Pierce  replied,  — and  it  was  a 
kind  of  self-assertion  which  no  triumph  would 


22 


LIFE  OF 


have  drawn  out,  — “ I do  not  need  that.  I will  try 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  cases,  if  clients  will 
continue  to  trust  me,  and,  if  I fail  just  as  I have 
to-day,  will  try  the  thousandth.  I shall  live  to  ar- 
gue cases  in  this  court  house  in  a manner  that  will 
mortify  neither  myself  nor  my  friends.”  It  is  in 
such  moments  of  defeat  that  character  and  ability 
are  most  fairly  tested ; they  would  irremediably 
crush  a youth  devoid  of  real  energy,  and  being 
neither  more  nor  less  than  his  just  desert,  would 
be  accepted  as  such.  But  a failure  of  this  kind 
serves  an  opposite  purpose  to  a mind  in  which  the 
strongest  and  richest  qualities  lie  deep,  and,  from 
their  very  size  and  mass,  cannot  at  once  be  ren- 
dered available.  It  provokes  an  innate  self-confi- 
dence, while,  at  the  same  time,  it  sternly  indicates 
the  sedulous  cultivation,  the  earnest  effort,  the 
toil,  the  agony,  which  are  the  conditions  of  ulti- 
mate success.  It  is,  indeed,  one  of  the  best  modes 
of  discipline  that  experience  can  administer,  and 
may  reasonably  be  counted  a fortunate  event  in 
the  life  of  a young  man  vigorous  enough  to  over- 
come the  momentary  depression. 

Pierce’s  distinction  at  the  bar,  however,  did  not 
immediately  follow ; nor  did  he  acquire  what  we 
may  designate  as  positive  eminence  until  some 
years  after  this  period.  The  enticements  of  politi- 
cal life  — so  especially  fascinating  to  a young  law- 
yer, but  so  irregular  in  its  tendencies,  and  so  inimi- 
cal to  steady  professional  labor  — had  begun  to 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


23 


operate  upon  him.  His  father’s  prominent  position 
in  the  politics  of  the  state  made  it  almost  impos- 
sible that  the  son  should  stand  aloof.  In  1827,  the 
same  year  when  Franklin  began  the  practice  of  the 
law,  General  Benjamin  Pierce  had  been  elected 
governor  of  New  Hampshire.  He  was  defeated  in 
the  election  of  1828,  but  was  again  successful  in 
that  of  the  subsequent  year.  During  these  years, 
the  contest  for  the  presidency  had  been  fought  with 
a fervor  that  drew  almost  every  body  into  it,  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  and  had  terminated  in  the 
triumph  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Franklin  Pierce,  in 
advance  of  his  father’s  decision,  though  not  in  op- 
position to  it,  had  declared  himself  for  the  illustri- 
ous man,  whose  military  renown  was  destined  to 
be  thrown  into  the  shade  by  a civil  administration 
the  most  splendid  and  powerful  that  ever  adorned 
the  annals  of  our  country.  I love  to  record  of  the 
subject  of  this  memoir,  that  his  first  political  faith 
was  pledged  to  that  great  leader  of  the  democracy. 

I remember  meeting  Pierce,  about  this  period, 
and  catching  from  him  some  faint  reflection  of  the 
zeal  with  which  he  wras  now  stepping  into  the  po- 
litical arena.  My  sympathies  and  opinions,  it  is 
true,  — so  far  as  I had  any  in  public  affairs,  — had, 
from  the  first,  been  enlisted  on  the  same  side  with 
his  own.  But  I wras  now  made  strongly  sensible 
of  an  increased  development  of  my  friend’s  mind, 
by  means  of  wThich  he  possessed  a vastly  greater 
power,  than  heretofore,  over  the  minds  with  which 


24 


LIFE  OF 


he  came  in  contact.  This  progressive  growth  has 
continued  to  be  one  of  his  remarkable  character- 
istics. Of  most  men  you  early  know  the  mental 
gauge  and  measurement,  and  do  not  subsequently 
have  much  occasion  to  change  it.  Not  so  with 
Pierce  : his  tendency  was  not  merely  high,  but 
towards  a point  which  rose  higher  and  higher,  as 
the  aspirant  tended  upward.  Since  we  parted, 
studious  days  had  educated  him  ; life,  too,  and  his 
own  exertions  in  it,  and  his  native  habit  of  close 
and  accurate  observation,  had  likewise  begun  to 
educate  him. 

The  town  of  Hillsborough,  in  1829,  gave  Frank- 
lin Pierce  his  first  public  honor,  by  electing  him 
its  representative  in  the  legislature  of  the  state. 
His  whole  service  in  that  body  comprised  four 
years,  in  the  two  latter  of  which  he  was  elected 
speaker  by  a vote  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-five, 
against  fifty-eight  for  other  candidates.  This  over- 
powering majority  evinced  the  confidence  which 
his  character  inspired,  and  which,  during  his  whole 
career,  it  has  invariably  commanded,  in  advance 
of  what  might  be  termed  positive  proof,  although 
the  result  has  never  failed  to  justify  it.  I still 
recollect  his  description  of  the  feelings  with  which 
he  entered  on  his  arduous  duties  — the  feverish 
night  that  preceded  his  taking  the  chair  — the 
doubt,  the  struggle  with  himself— all  ending  in 
perfect  calmness,  full  self-possession,  and  free  pow- 
er of  action,  when  the  crisis  actually  came. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


25 


He  had  all  the  natural  gifts  that  adapted  him 
for  the  post ; courtesy,  firmness,  quickness  and  ac- 
curacy of  judgment,  and  a clearness  of  mental  per- 
ception that  brought  its  own  regularity  into  the 
scene  of  confused  and  entangled  debate  ; and  to 
these  qualities  he  added  whatever  was  to  be  at- 
tained by  laborious  study  of  parliamentary  rules. 
His  merit  as  a presiding  officer  was  universally 
acknowledged.  It  is  rare  that  a man  combines  so 
much  impulse  with  so  great  a power  of  regulating 
the  impulses  of  himself  and  others  as  Franklin 
Pierce.  The  faculty,  here  exercised  and  improved, 
of  controlling  an  assembly  while  agitated  by  tu- 
multuous controversy,  was  afterwards  called  into 
play  upon  a higher  field ; for,  during  his  congres- 
sional service,  Pierce  was  often  summoned  to  pre- 
side in  committee  of  the  whole,  when  a turbulent 
debate  was  expected  to  demand  peculiar  energy  in 
the  chair. 

He  was  elected  a member  of  Congress  in  1833  ; 
being  young  for  the  station,  as  he  has  always  been 
for  every  public  station  that  he  has  filled.  A 
different  kind  of  man  — a man  conscious  that 
accident  alone  had  elevated  him,  and  therefore 
nervously  anxious  to  prove  himself  equal  to  his 
fortunes  — would  thus  have  been  impelled  to  spas- 
modic efforts.  He  would  have  thrust  himself  for- 
ward in  debate,  taking  the  word  out  of  the  mouths 
of  renowned  orators,  and  thereby  winning  notori- 
ety, as  at  least  the  glittering  counterfeit  of  true 
3 


26 


LIFE  OF 


celebrity.  Had  Pierce,  with  his  genuine  ability, 
practised  this  course,  had  he  possessed  even  an 
ordinary  love  of  display,  and  had  he  acted  upon  it 
with  his  inherent  tact  and  skill,  taking  advantage 
of  fair  occasions  to  prove  the  power  and  substance 
that  were  in  him,  it  would  greatly  have  facilitated 
the  task  of  his  biographer. 

To  aim  at  personal  distinction,  however,  as  an 
object  independent  of  the  public  service,  would 
have  been  contrary  to  all  the  foregone  and  subse- 
quent manifestations  of  his  life.  He  was  never 
wanting  to  the  occasion  ; but  he  waited  for  the 
occasion  to  bring  him  inevitably  forward.  When 
he  spoke,  it  was  not  only  because  he  was  fully 
master  of  the  subject,  but  because  the  exigency 
demanded  him,  and  because  no  other  and  older 
man  could  perform  the  same  duty  as  well  as  him- 
self. Of  the  copious  eloquence  — and  some  of  it, 
no  doubt,  of  a high  order  — which  Buncombe  has 
called  forth,  not  a paragraph,  nor  a period,  is  attrib- 
utable to  Franklin  Pierce.  He  had  no  need  of 
these  devices  to  fortify  his  constituents  in  then 
high  opinion  of  him  ; nor  did  he  fail  to  perceive 
that  such  was  not  the  method  to  acquire  real 
weight  in  the  body  of  which  he  was  a member. 
In  truth,  he  has  no  fluency  of  words,  except  when 
an  earnest  meaning  and  purpose  supply  their  own 
expression.  Every  one  of  his  speeches  in  Con- 
gress, and,  we  may  say,  in  every  other  hall  of  ora- 
tory, or  on  any  stump  that  he  may  have  mounted, 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


27 


was  drawn  forth  by  the  perception  that  it  was 
needed,  was  directed  to  a full  exposition  of  the 
subject,  and  (rarest  of  all)  was  limited  by  what  he 
really  had  to  say.  Even  the  graces  of  the  orator 
were- never  elaborated,  never  assumed  for  their  own 
sake,  but  were  legitimately  derived  from  the  force 
of  his  conceptions,  and  from  the  impulsive  warmth 
which  accompanies  the  glow  of  thought.  Owing 
to  these  peculiarities,  — for  such,  unfortunately, 
they  may  be  termed,  in  reference  to  what  are  usu- 
ally the  characteristics  of  a legislative  career,  — his 
position  before  the  country  was  less  conspicuous 
than  that  of  many  men,  who  could  claim  nothing 
like  Pierce’s  actual  influence  in  the  national  coun- 
cils. His  speeches,  in  their  muscular  texture  and 
close  grasp  of  their  subject,  resembled  the  brief 
but  pregnant  arguments  and  expositions  of  the 
sages  of  the  Continental  Congress,  rather  than  the 
immeasurable  harangues  which  are  now  the  order 
of  the  day. 

His  congressional  life,  though  it  made  compara- 
tively so  little  show,  was  full  of  labor,  directed  to 
substantial  objects.  He  was  a member  of  the 
judiciary  and  other  important  committees ; and 
the  drudgery  of  the  committee  room,  where  so 
much  of  the  real  public  business  of  the  country  is 
transacted,  fell  in  large  measure  to  his  lot.  Thus, 
even  as  a legislator,  he  may  be  said  to  have  been 
a man  of  deeds,  not  words  ; and  when  he  spoke 
upon  any  subject  with  which  his  duty,  as  chair- 


28 


LIFE  OF 


man  or  member  of  a committee,  had  brought  him 
in  relation,  his  words  had  the  weight  of  deeds,  from 
the  meaning,  the  directness,  and  the  truth,  that  he 
conveyed  into  them.  His  merits  made  themselves 
known  and  felt  in  the  sphere  where  they  were  ex- 
ercised ; and  he  was  early  appreciated  by  one  who 
seldom  erred  in  his  estimate  of  men,  whether  in 
their  moral  or  intellectual  aspect.  His  intercourse 
with  President  Jackson  was  frequent  and  free,  and 
marked  by  friendly  regard  on  the  part  of  the  latter. 
In  the  stormiest  periods  of  his  administration, 
Pierce  came  frankly  to  his  aid.  The  confidence 
then  established  was  never  lost ; and  when  Jackson 
was  on  his  death  bed,  being  visited  by  a gentle- 
man from  the  north,  (himself  formerly  a democratic 
member  of  Congress,)  the  old  hero  spoke  with  en- 
ergy of  Franklin  Pierce’s  ability  and  patriotism, 
and  remarked,  as  if  with  prophetic  foresight  of  his 
young  friend’s  destiny,  that  “ the  interests  of  the 
country  would  be  safe  in  such  hands.” 

One  of  President  Jackson’s  measures,  which  had 
Pierce’s  approval  and  support,  was  his  veto  of  the 
Maysville  Road  bill.  This  bill  was  part  of  a sys- 
tem of  vast  public  works,  principally  railroads  and 
canals,  which  it  was  proposed  to  undertake  at  the 
expense  of  the  national  treasury  — a policy  not  then 
of  recent  origin,  but  which  had  been  fostered  by 
John  Quincy  Adams,  and  had  attained  a gigantic 
growth  at  the  close  of  his  presidency.  The  esti- 
mate of  works  undertaken,  or  projected,  at  the  com- 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


29 


mencement  of  Jackson’s  administration,  amounted 
to  considerably  more  than  a hundred  millions  of 
dollars.  The  expenditure  of  this  enormous  sum, 
and  doubtless  of  other  incalculable  amounts,  in 
progressive  increase,  was  to  be  for  purposes  often 
of  unascertained  utility,  and  was  to  pass  through 
the  agents  and  officers  of  the  federal  government  — 
a means  of  political  corruption  not  safely  to  be 
trusted  even  in  the  purest  hands.  The  peril  to  the 
individuality  of  the  states,  from  a system  tending 
so  directly  to  consolidate  the  powers  of  govern- 
ment towards  a common  centre,  was  obvious.  The 
result  might  have  been,  with  the  lapse  of  time  and 
the  increased  activity  of  the  disease,  to  place  the 
capital  of  our  federative  Union  in  a position  resem- 
bling that  of  imperial  Rome,  where  each  once  in- 
dependent state  was  a subject  province,  and  all  the 
highways  of  the  world  were  said  to  meet  in  her 
forum.  It  was  against  this  system,  so  dangerous 
to  liberty,  and  to  public  and  private  integrity,  that 
Jackson  declared  war,  by  the  famous  Maysville 
veto. 

It  would  be  an  absurd  interpretation  of  Pierce’s 
course,  in  regard  to  this  and  similar  measures,  to 
suppose  him  hostile  either  to  internal  or  coastwise 
improvements,  so  far  as  they  may  legitimately  be 
the  business  of  the  general  government.  He  was 
aware  of  the  immense  importance  of  our  internal 
commerce,  and  was  ever  ready  to  vote  such  appro- 
priations as  might  be  necessary  for  promoting  it, 
3 * 


30 


LIFE  OF 


when  asked  for  in  an  honest  spirit,  and  at  points 
where  they  were  really  needed.  He  doubted,  in- 
deed, the  constitutional  power  of  Congress  to  un- 
dertake, by  building  roads  through  the  wilderness, 
or  opening  unfrequented  rivers,  to  create  commerce 
where  it  did  not  yet  exist ; but  he  never  denied  or 
questioned  the  right  and  duty  to  remove  obstruc- 
tions in  the  way  of  inland  trade,  and  to  afford  it 
every  facility,  when  the  nature  and  necessity  of 
things  had  brought  it  into  genuine  existence.  And 
he  agreed  with  the  best  and  wisest  statesmen  in 
believing  that  this  distinction  involved  the  true 
principle  on  which  legislation,  for  the  purpose  here 
discussed,  should  proceed. 

While  a member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, he  delivered  a forcible  speech  against  the  bill 
authorizing  appropriations  for  the  Military  Acad- 
emy at  West  Point.  He  was  decidedly  opposed 
to  that  institution,  as  then  and  at  present  organized. 
We  allude  to  the  subject  in  illustration  of  the  gen- 
erous frankness  with  which,  years  afterwards,  when 
the  battle  smoke  of  Mexico  had  baptized  him  also 
a soldier,  he  acknowledged  himself  in  the  wrong, 
and  bore  testimony  to  the  brilliant  services  which 
the  graduates  of  the  Academy,  trained  to  soldier- 
ship from  boyhood,  had  rendered  to  their  country. 
And  if  he  has  made  no  other  such  acknowledg- 
ment of  past  error,  committed  in  his  legislative 
capacity,  it  is  but  fair  to  believe  that  it  is  because 
his  reason  and  conscience  accuse  him  of  no  other 


wrong. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


31 


It  was  while  in  the  lower  house  of  Congress, 
that  Franklin  Pierce  took  that  stand  on  the  slavery- 
question,  from  which  he  has  never  since  swerved  a 
hair’s  breadth.  < He  fully  recognized,  by  his  votes 
and  by  his  voice,  the  rights  pledged  to  the  south 
by  the  constitution.  This,  at  the  period  when  he 
so  declared  himself,  was  comparatively  an  easy 
thing  to  do.  But  when  it  became  more  difficult, 
when  the  first  imperceptible  movement  of  agitation 
had  grown  to  be  almost  a convulsion,  his  course 
was  still  the  same.  Nor  did  he  ever  shun  the  ob- 
loquy that  sometimes  threatened  to  pursue  the 
northern  man,  who  dared  to  love  that  great  and 
sacred  reality  — his  whole,  united,  native  coun- 
try'— better  than  the  mistiness  of  a philanthropic 
theory. 

He  continued  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
four  years.  If,  at  this  period  of  his  life,  he  ren- 
dered unobtrusive,  though  not  unimportant,  ser- 
vices to  the  public,  it  must  also  have  been  a time 
of  vast  intellectual  advantage  to  himself.  Amidst 
great  national  affairs,  he  was  acquiring  the  best  of 
all  educations  for  future  eminence  and  leadership. 
In  the  midst  of  statesmen,  he  grew  to  be  a states- 
man. Studious,  as  all  his  speeches  prove  him  to 
be,  of  history,  he  beheld  it  demonstrating  itself 
before  his  eyes.  As  regards  this  sort  of  training, 
much  of  its  good  or  ill  effect  depends  on  the  nat- 
ural force  and  depth  of  the  man.  Many,  no  doubt, 
by  early  mixture  with  politics,  become  the  mere 


32 


LIFE  OF 


politicians  of  the  moment,  — a class  of  men  suffi- 
ciently abundant  among  us,  — acquiring  only  a 
knack  and  cunning,  which  guide  them  tolerably 
well  through  immediate  difficulties,  without  in- 
structing them  in  the  great  rules  of  higher  policy. 
But  when  the  actual  observation  of  public  meas- 
ures goes  hand  in  hand  with  study,  when  the  mind 
is  capable  of  comparing  the  present  with  its  anal- 
ogies in  the  past,  and  of  grasping  the  principle 
that  belongs  to  both,  this  is  to  have  history  for  a 
living  tutor.  If  the  student  be  fit  for  such  instruc- 
tion, he  will  be  seen  to  act  afterwards  with  the 
elevation  of  a high  ideal,  and  with  the  expediency, 
the  sagacity,  the  instinct  of  what  is  fit  and  prac- 
ticable, which  make  the  advantage  of  the  man  of 
actual  affairs  over  the  mere  theorist. 

And  it  was  another  advantage  of  his  being 
brought  early  into  the  sphere  of  national  interests, 
and  continuing  there  for  a series  of  years,  that  it 
enabled  him  to  overcome  any  narrow  and  sectional 
prejudices.  Without  loving  New  England  less,  he 
loved  the  broad  area  of  the  country  more.  He 
thus  retained  that  equal  sentiment  of  patriotism 
for  the  whole  land,  with  which  his  father  had  im- 
bued him,  and  which  is  perhaps  apt  to  be  impaired 
in  the  hearts  of  those  who  come  late  to  the  na- 
tional legislature,  after  long  training  in  the  nar- 
rower fields  of  the  separate  states.  His  sense  of 
the  value  of  the  Union,  which  had  been  taught 
him  at  the  fireside,  from  earliest  infancy,  by  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


33 


stories  of  patriotic  valor  that  he  there  heard,  was 
now  strengthened  by  friendly  association  with 
its  representatives  from  every  quarter.  It  is  this 
youthful  sentiment  of  Americanism,  so  happily 
developed  by  after  circumstances,  that  we  see  oper- 
ating through  all  his  public  life,  and  making  him 
as  tender  of  what  he  considers  due  to  the  south, 
as  of  the  rights  of  his  own  land  of  hills. 

Franklin  Pierce  had  scarcely  reached  the  legal 
age  for  such  elevation,  when,  in  1837,  he  was 
elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He 
took  his  seat  at  the  commencement  of  the  pres- 
idency of  Mr.  Van  Buren.  Never  before  nor  since 
has  the  Senate  been  more  venerable  for  the  array 
of  veteran  and  celebrated  statesmen,  than  at  that 
time.  Calhoun,  Webster,  and  Clay,  had  lost  noth- 
ing of  their  intellectual  might.  Benton,  Silas 
Wright,  Woodbury,  Buchanan,  and  Walker,  were 
members ; and  many  even  of  the  less  eminent 
names  were  such  as  have  gained  historic  place  — 
men  of  powerful  eloquence,  and  worthy  to  be  lead- 
ers of  the  respective  parties  which  they  espoused. 
To  this  dignified  body  (composed  of  individuals 
some  of  whom  were  older  in  political  experience 
than  he  in  his  mortal  life)  Pierce  came  as  the 
youngest  member  of  the  Senate.  With  his  usual 
tact,  and  exquisite  sense  of  propriety,  he  saw  that 
it  was  not  the  time  for  him  to  step  forward  prom- 
inently on  this  highest  theatre  in  the  land.  He 
beheld  these  great  combatants  doing  battle  before 


c 


34 


LIFE  OF 


the  eyes  of  the  nation,  and  engrossing  its  whole 
regards.  There  was  hardly  an  avenue  to  reputa- 
tion save  what  was  occupied  by  one  or  another  of 
those  gigantic  figures. 

Modes  of  public  service  remained,  however,  re- 
quiring high  ability,  but  with  which  few  men  of 
competent  endowments  would  have  been  content 
to  occupy  themselves.  Pierce  had  already  demon- 
strated the  possibility  of  obtaining  an  enviable  po- 
sition among  his  associates,  without  the  windy 
notoriety  which  a member  of  Congress  may  read- 
ily manufacture  for  himself  by  the  lavish  expendi- 
ture of  breath  that  had  been  better  spared.  In  the 
more  elevated  field  of  the  Senate,  he  pursued  the 
same  course  as  while  a representative,  and  with 
more  than  equal  results. 

Among  other  committees,  he  was  a member  of 
that  upon  revolutionary  pensions.  Of  this  subject 
he  made  himself  thoroughly  master,  and  was  rec- 
ognized by  the  Senate  as  an  unquestionable  au- 
thority. In  1840,  in  reference  to  several  bills  for 
the  relief  of  claimants  under  the  pension  law,  he 
delivered  a speech  which  finely  illustrates  as  well 
the  sympathies  as  the  justice  of  the  man,  showing 
how  vividly  he  could  feel,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
how  powerless  were  his  feelings  to  turn  him  aside 
from  the  strict  line  of  public  integrity.  The  mer- 
its and  sacrifices  of  the  people  of  the  revolution 
have  never  been  stated  with  more  earnest  grati- 
tude than  in  the  following  passage : — 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


35 


“ I am  not  insensible,  Mr.  President,  of  the  advan- 
tages with  which  claims  of  this  character  always 
come  before  Congress.  They  are  supposed  to  be 
based  on  services  for  which  no  man  entertains  a 
higher  estimate  than  myself — services  beyond  all 
praise,  and  above  all  price.  But,  while  warm  and 
glowing  with  the  glorious  recollections  which  a 
recurrence  to  that  period  of  our  history  can  never 
fail  to  awaken ; while  we  cherish  with  emotions 
of  pride,  reverence,  and  affection  the  memory  of 
those  brave  men  who  are  no  longer  with  us ; while 
we  provide,  with  a liberal  hand,  for  such  as  sur- 
vive, and  for  the  widows  of  the  deceased ; while 
we  would  accord  to  the  heirs,  whether  in  the  sec- 
ond or  third  generation,  every  dollar  to  which  they 
can  establish  a just  claim,  — I trust  we  shall  not,  in 
the  strong  current  of  our  sympathies,  forget  what 
becomes  us  as  the  descendants  of  such  men.  They 
would  teach  us  to  legislate  upon  our  judgment, 
upon  our  sober  sense  of  right,  and  not  upon  our 
impulses  or  our  sympathies.  No,  sir ; we  may  act 
in  this  way,  if  we  choose,  when  dispensing  our 
own  means,  but  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  do  it 
when  dispensing  the  means  of  our  constituents. 

“ If  we  were  to  legislate  upon  our  sympathies  — 
yet  more  I will  admit  — if  we  were  to  yield  to 
that  sense  of  just  and  grateful  remuneration  which 
presses  itself  upon  every  man’s  heart,  there  would 
be  scarcely  a limit  for  our  bounty.  The  whole  ex- 
chequer could  not  answer  the  demand.  To  the 


36 


LIFE  OF 


patriotism,  the  courage,  and  the  sacrifices  of  the 
people  of  that  day,  we  owe,  under  Providence,  all 
that  we  now  most  highly  prize,  and  what  we  shall 
transmit  to  our  children  as  the  richest  legacy  they 
can  inherit.  The  war  of  the  revolution,  it  has 
been  justly  remarked,  was  not  a war  of  armies 
merely  — it  was  the  war  of  nearly  a whole  people, 
and  such  a people  as  the  world  had  never  before 
seen,  in  a death  struggle  for  liberty. 

“ The  losses,  sacrifices,  and  sufferings  of  that 
period  were  common  to  all  classes  and  conditions 
of  life.  Those  who  remained  at  home  suffered 
hardly  less  than  those  who  entered  upon  the  ac- 
tive strife.  The  aged  father  and  mother  under- 
went not  less  than  the  son,  who  would  have  been 
the  comfort  and  stay  of  their  declining  years,  now 
called  to  perform  a yet  higher  duty  — to  follow 
the  standard  of  his  bleeding  country.  The  young 
mother,  with  her  helpless  children,  excites  not  less 
deeply  our  sympathies,  contending  with  want,  and 
dragging  out  years  of  weary  and  toilsome  days 
and  anxious  nights,  than  the  husband  in  the  field, 
following  the  fortunes  of  our  arms  without  the 
common  habiliments  to  protect  his  person,  or  the 
requisite  sustenance  to  support  his  strength.  Sir, 
I never  think  of  that  patient,  enduring,  self-sacri- 
ficing army,  which  crossed  the  Delaware  in  De- 
cember, 1777,  marching  barefooted  upon  frozen 
ground  to  encounter  the  foe,  and  leaving  bloody 
footprints  for  miles  behind  them  — I never  think 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


37 


of  their  sufferings  during  that  terrible  winter  with- 
out involuntarily  inquiring,  Where  then  were  their 
families  ? Who  lit  up  the  cheerful  fire  upon  their 
hearths  at  home  ? Who  spoke  the  word  of  com- 
fort and  encouragement  ? Nay,  sir,  who  furnished 
protection  from  the  rigors  of  winter,  and  brought 
them  the  necessary  means  of  subsistence  ? 

“ The  true  and  simple  answer  to  these  questions 
would  disclose  an  amount  of  suffering  and  an- 
guish, mental  and  physical,  such  as  might  not 
have  been  found  in  the  ranks  of  the  armies  — not 
even  in  the  severest  trial  of  that  fortitude  which 
never  faltered,  and  that  power  of  endurance  which 
seemed  to  know  no  limit.  All  this  no  man  feels 
more  deeply  than  I do.  But  they  were  common 
sacrifices  in  a common  cause,  ultimately  crowned 
with  the  reward  of  liberty.  They  have  an  ever- 
lasting claim  upon  our  gratitude,  and  are  destined, 
as  I trust,  by  their  heroic  example,  to  exert  an  abid- 
ing influence  upon  our  latest  posterity.” 

With  this  heartfelt  recognition  of  the  debt  of 
gratitude  due  to  those  excellent  men,  the  senator 
enters  into  an  analysis  of  the  claims  presented, 
and  proves  them  to  be  void  of  justice.  The  whole 
speech  is  a good  exponent  of  his  character ; full 
of  the  truest  sympathy,  but,  above  all  things,  just, 
and  not  to  be  misled,  on  the  public  behalf,  by  those 
impulses  that  would  be  most  apt  to  sway  the 
private  man.  The  mere  pecuniary  amount,  saved 
to  the  nation  by  his  scrutiny  into  affairs  of  this 
4 


38 


LIFE  OF 


kind,  though  great,  was,  after  all,  but  a minor  con- 
sideration. The  danger  lay  in  establishing  a cor- 
rupt system,  and  placing  a wrong  precedent  upon 
the  statute  book.  Instances  might  be  adduced,  on 
the  other  hand,  which  show  him  not  less  scrupu- 
lous of  the  just  rights  of  the  claimants,  than  care- 
ful of  the  public  interests. 

Another  subject  upon  which  he  came  forward 
was  the  military  establishment,  and  the  natural 
defences  of  the  country.  In  looking  through  the 
columns  of  the  Congressional  Globe,  we  find 
abundant  evidences  of  Senator  Pierce’s  laborious 
and  unostentatious  discharge  of  his  duties  — re- 
ports of  committees,  brief  remarks,  and,  here  and 
there,  a longer  speech,  always  full  of  matter,  and 
evincing  a thoroughly-digested  knowledge  of  the 
subject.  Not  having  been  written  out  by  himself, 
however,  these  speeches  are  no  fair  specimens  of 
his  oratory,  except  as  regards  the  train  of  argu- 
ment and  substantial  thought ; and  adhering  very 
closely  to  the  business  in  hand,  they  seldom  present 
passages  that  could  be  quoted,  without  tearing 
them  forcibly,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  context,  and 
thus  mangling  the  fragments  which  we  might  offer 
to  the  reader.  As  we  have  already  remarked,  he 
seems,  as  a debater,  to  revive  the  old  type  of  the 
Revolutionary  Congress,  or  to  bring  back  the  noble 
days  of  the  Long  Parliament  of  England,  before 
eloquence  had  become  what  it  is  now,  a knack, 
and  a thing  valued  for  itself.  Like  those  strenuous 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


39 


orators,  he  speaks  with  the  earnestness  of  honest 
conviction,  and  out  of  the  fervor  of  his  heart,  and 
because  the  occasion  and  his  deep  sense  of  it  con- 
strain him. 

By  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  in  the  presi- 
dential election  of  1840,  the  administration  of  gov- 
ernment was  transferred,  for  the  first  time  in  twelve 
years,  to  the  whigs.  An  extra  session  of  Congress 
was  summoned  to  assemble  in  June,  1841,  by 
President  Harrison,  who,  however,  died  before  it 
came  together.  At  this  extra  session,  it  was  the 
purpose  of  the  whig  party,  under  the  leadership  of 
Henry  Clay,  to  overthrow  all  the  great  measures 
which  the  successive  democratic  administrations 
had  established.  The  sub-treasury  was  to  be  de- 
molished ; a national  bank  was  to  be  incorporated ; 
a high  tariff  of  duties  was  to  be  imposed,  for  pur- 
poses of  protection  and  abundant  revenue.  The 
whig  administration  possessed  a majority,  both  in 
the  Senate  and  the  House.  It  was  a dark  period 
for  the  democracy,  so  long  unaccustomed  to  de- 
feat, and  now  beholding  all  that  they  had  won  for 
the  cause  of  national  progress,  after  the  arduous 
struggle  of  so  many  years,  apparently  about  to  be 
swept  away. 

The  sterling  influence  which  Franklin  Pierce 
now  exercised  is  well  described  in  the  following 
remarks  of  the  Hon.  A.  O.  P.  Nicholson : — 

“ The  power  of  an  organized  minority  was  never 
more  clearly  exhibited  than  in  this  contest.  The 


40 


LIFE  OF 


democratic  senators  acted  in  strict  concert,  meeting 
night  after  night  for  consultation,  arranging  their 
plan  of  battle,  selecting  their  champions  for  the 
coming  day,  assigning  to  each  man  his  proper 
duty,  and  looking  carefully  to  the  popular  judg- 
ment for  a final  victory.  In  these  consultations, 
no  man’s  voice  was  heard  with  more  profound  re- 
spect than  that  of  Franklin  Pierce.  His  counsels 
were  characterized  by  so  thorough  a knowledge  of 
human  nature,  by  so  much  solid  common  sense, 
by  such  devotion  to  democratic  principles,  that, 
although  among  the  youngest  of  the  senators,  it 
was  deemed  important  that  all  their  conclusions 
should  be  submitted  to  his  sanction. 

“ Although  known  to  be  ardent  in  his  tempera- 
ment, he  was  also  known  to  act  with  prudence  and 
caution.  His  impetuosity  in  debate  was  only  the 
result  of  the  deep  convictions  which  controlled  his 
mind.  He  enjoyed  the  unbounded  confidence  of 
Calhoun,  Buchanan,  Wright,  Woodbury,  Walker, 
King,  Benton,  and  indeed  of  the  entire  democratic 
portion  of  the  Senate.  When  he  rose  in  the  Senate 
or  in  the  committee  room,  he  was  heard  with  the 
profoundest  attention  ; and  again  and  again  was 
he  greeted  by  these  veteran  democrats  as  one  of 
our  ablest  champions.  His  speeches,  during  this 
session,  will  compare  with  those  of  any  other  sena- 
tor. If  it  be  asked,  why  he  did  not  receive  higher 
distinction,  I answer,  that  such  men  as  Calhoun, 
Wright,  Buchanan,  and  Woodbury,  were  the  ac- 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


41 


knowledged  leaders  of  the  democracy.  The  eyes 
of  the  nation  were  on  them.  The  hopes  of  their 
party  were  reposed  in  them.  The  brightness  of 
these  luminaries  was  too  great  to  allow  the  bril- 
liancy of  so  young  a man  to  attract  especial  atten- 
tion. But  ask  any  one  of  these  veterans  how 
Franklin  Pierce  ranked  in  the  Senate,  and  he  will 
tell  you,  that,  to  stand  in  the  front  rank  f<5r  talents, 
eloquence,  and  statesmanship,  he  only  lacked  a few 
more  years.” 

In  the  course  of  this  session,  he  made  a very 
powerful  speech  in  favor  of  Mr.  Buchanan’s  res- 
olution, calling  on  the  president  to  furnish  the 
names  of  persons  removed  from  office  since  the 
4th  of  March,  1841.  The  whigs,  in  1840,  as  in 
the  subsequent  canvass  of  1848,  had  professed  a 
purpose  to  abolish  the  system  of  official  removals 
on  account  of  political  opinion,  but,  immediately 
on  coming  into  power,  had  commenced  a proscrip- 
tion infinitely  beyond  the  example  of  the  demo- 
cratic party.  This  course,  with  an  army  of  office 
seekers  besieging  the  departments,  was  unques- 
tionably difficult  to  avoid,  and  perhaps,  on  the 
whole,  not  desirable  to  be  avoided.  But  it  was 
rendered  astounding  by  the  sturdy  effrontery  with 
which  the  gentlemen  in  power  denied  that  their 
present  practice  had  falsified  any  of  their  past  pro- 
fessions. A few  of  the  closing  paragraphs  of  Sen- 
ator Pierce’s  highly  effective  speech,  being  more 
easily  separable  than  the  rest,  may  here  be  cited. 
4* 


42 


LIFE  OF 


“One  word  more,  and  I leave  this  subject  — 
a painful  one  to  me,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end.  The  senator  from  North  Carolina,  in  the 
course  of  his  remarks,  the  other  day,  asked,  ‘ Do 
gentlemen  expect  that  their  friends  are  to  be  re- 
tained in  office  against  the  will  of  the  nation  ? 
Are  they  so  unreasonable  as  to  expect  what  the 
circumstances  and  the  necessity  of  the  case  for- 
bid ? ’ What  our  expectations  were  is  not  the 
question  now;  but  what  were  your  pledges  and 
promises  before  the  people.  On  a previous  occa- 
sion, the  distinguished  senator  from  Kentucky  made 
a similar  remark : 1 An  ungracious  task,  but  the  na- 
tion demands  it  ! ’ Sir,  this  demand  of  the  nation, 
— this  plea  of  state  necessity,  — let  me  tell 
gentlemen,  is  as  old  as  the  history  of  wrong  and 
oppression.  It  has  been  the  standing  plea,  the 
never-failing  resort  of  despotism. 

“ The  great  Julius  found  it  a convenient  plea 
when  he  restored  the  dignity  of  the  Roman  Sen- 
ate, but  destroyed  its  independence.  It  gave  coun- 
tenance to,  and  justified,  all  the  atrocities  of  the 
Inquisition  in  Spain.  It  forced  out  the  stifled 
groans  that  issued  from  the  Black  Hole  of  Cal- 
cutta. It  was  written  in  tears  upon  the  Bridge  of 
Sighs  in  Venice,  and  pointed  to  those  dark  recesses 
upon  whose  gloomy  thresholds  there  was  never  seen 
a returning  footprint. 

“ It  was  the  plea  of  the  austere  and  ambitious 
Strafford,  in  the  days  of  Charles  I.  It  filled  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


43 


Bastile  of  France,  and  lent  its  sanction  to  the  ter- 
rible atrocities  perpetrated  there.  It  was  this  plea 
that  snatched  the  mild,  eloquent,  and  patriotic 
Camille  Desmoulins  from  his  young  and  beautiful 
wife,  and  hurried  him  to  the  guillotine,  with  thou- 
sands of  others,  equally  unoffending  and  innocent. 
It  was  upon  this  plea  that  the  greatest  of  generals, 
if  not  men,  — you  cannot  mistake  me,  — I mean 
him,  the  presence  of  whose  very  ashes,  within  the 
last  few  months,  sufficed  to  stir  the  hearts  of  a 
continent,  — it  was  upon  this  plea  that  he  abjured 
the  noble  wife  who  had  thrown  light  and  gladness 
around  his  humbler  days,  and,  by  her  own  lofty 
energies  and  high  intellect,  had  encouraged  his 
aspirations.  It  was  upon  this  plea  that  he  com- 
mitted that  worst  and  most  fatal  act  of  his  event- 
ful life.  Upon  this,  too,  he  drew  around  his  person 
the  imperial  purple.  It  has  in  all  times,  and  in 
every  age,  been  the  foe  of  liberty,  and  the  indis- 
pensable stay  of  usurpation. 

“ Where  were  the  chains  of  despotism  ever 
thrown  around  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the 
press,  but  on  this  plea  of  state  necessity  ? Let 
the  spirit  of  Charles  X.  and  of  his  ministers  an- 
swer. 

“ It  is  cold,  selfish,  heartless,  and  has  always 
been  regardless  of  age,  sex,  condition,  services,  or 
any  of  the  incidents  of  life  that  appeal  to  patriot- 
ism or  humanity.  Wherever  its  authority  has 
been  acknowledged,  it  has  assailed  men  who  stood 


44 


LIFE  OF 


by  their  country  when  she  needed  strong  arms  and 
bold  hearts,  and  has  assailed  them  when,  maimed 
and  disabled  in  her  service,  they  could  no  longer 
brandish  a weapon  in  her  defence.  It  has  afflicted 
the  feeble  and  dependent  wife  for  the  imaginary 
faults  of  the  husband.  It  has  stricken  down  Inno- 
cence in  its  beauty,  Youth  in  its  freshness,  Man- 
hood in  its  vigor,  and  Age  in  its  feebleness  and 
decrepitude.  Whatever  other  plea  or  apology  may 
be  set  up  for  the  sweeping,  ruthless  exercise  of  this 
civil  guillotine  at  the  present  day,  in  the  name  of 
Liberty  let  us  be  spared  this  fearful  one  of  state 
necessity,  in  this  early  age  of  the  republic,  upon 
the  floor  of  the  American  Senate,  in  the  face  of  a 
people  yet  free ! ” 

In  June,  1842,  he  signified  his  purpose  of  retir- 
ing from  the  Senate. 

It  was  now  more  than  sixteen  years  since  the 
author  of  this  sketch  had  been  accustomed  to  meet 
Frank  Pierce  (that  familiar  name,  which  the  nation 
is  adopting  as  one  of  its  household  words)  in  hab- 
its of  daily  intercourse.  Our  modes  of  life  had 
since  been  as  different  as  could  well  be  imagined ; 
our  culture  and  labor  were  entirely  unlike  ; there 
was  hardly  a single  object  or  aspiration  in  common 
between  us.  Still  we  had  occasionally  met,  and 
always  on  the  old  ground  of  friendly  confidence. 
There  were  sympathies  that  had  not  been  suffered 
to  die  out.  Had  we  lived  more  constantly  togeth- 
er, it  is  not  impossible  that  the  relation  might  have 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


45 


been  changed  by  the  various  accidents  and  attri- 
tions of  life ; but  having  no  mutual  events,  and 
few  mutual  interests,  the  tie  of  early  friendship  re- 
mained the  same  as  when  we  parted.  The  modi- 
fications which  I saw  in  his  character  were  those 
of  growth  and  development;  new  qualities  came 
out,  or  displayed  themselves  more  prominently,  but 
always  in  harmony  with  those  heretofore  known. 
Always  I was  sensible  of  progress  in  him ; a char- 
acteristic — as,  I believe,  has  been  said  in  the  fore- 
going pages — 'more  perceptible  in  Franklin  Pierce 
than  in  any  other  person  with  whom  I have  been 
acquainted.  He  widened,  deepened,  rose  to  a high- 
er point,  and  thus  ever  made  himself  equal  to  the 
ever-heightening  occasion.  This  peculiarity  of  in- 
tellectual growth,  continued  beyond  the  ordinary 
period,  has  its  analogy  in  his  physical  constitution 
— it  being  a fact  that  he  continued  to  grow  in 
stature  between  his  twenty-first  and  twenty-fifth 
years. 

He  had  not  met  with  that  misfortune,  which,  it 
is  to  be  feared,  befalls  many  men  who  throw  their 
ardor  into  politics.  The  pursuit  had  taken  nothing 
from  the  frankness  of  his  nature  ; now,  as  ever,  he 
used  direct  means  to  gain  honorable  ends ; and  his 
subtlety  — for,  after  all,  his  heart  and  purpose  were 
not  such  as  he  that  runs  may  read  — had  the  depth 
of  wisdom,  and  never  any  quality  of  cunning.  In 
great  part,  this  undeteriorated  manhood  was  due 
to  his  original  nobility  of  nature.  Yet  it  may  not 


46 


LIFE  OF 


be  unjust  to  attribute  it,  in  some  degree,  to  the  sin- 
gular good  fortune  of  his  life.  He  had  never,  in  all 
his  career,  found  it  necessary  to  stoop.  Office  had 
sought  him ; he  had  not  begged  it,  nor  manoeuvred 
for  it,  nor  crept  towards  it  — arts  which  too  fre- 
quently bring  a man,  morally  bowed  and  degraded, 
to  a position  which  should  be  one  of  dignity,  but 
in  which  he  will  vainly  essay  to  stand  upright. 

In  our  earlier  meetings,  after  Pierce  had  begun 
to  come  forward  in  public  life,  I could  discern 
that  his  ambition  was  aroused.  He  felt  a young 
man’s  enjoyment  of  success,  so  early  and  so  dis- 
tinguished. But  as  years  went  on,  such  motives 
seemed  to  be  less  influential  with  him.  He  was 
cured  of  ambition,  as,  one  after  another,  its  objects 
came  to  him  unsought.  His  domestic  position, 
likewise,  had  contributed  to  direct  his  tastes  and 
wishes  towards  the  pursuits  of  private  life.  In 
1834,  he  had  married  Jane  Means,  a daughter  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Appleton,  a former  president  of  Bow- 
doin  College.  Three  sons,  the  first  of  whom  died 
in  early  infancy,  were  born  to  him  ; and,  having 
hitherto  been  kept  poor  by  his  public  service,  he  no 
doubt  became  sensible  of  the  expediency  of  making 
some  provision  for  the  future.  Such,  it  may  be 
presumed,  were  the  considerations  that  induced  his 
resignation  of  the  senatorship,  greatly  to  the  regret 
of  all  parties.  The  senators  gathered  around  him, 
as  he  was  about  to  quit  the  chamber  ; political  op- 
ponents took  leave  of  him  as  of  a personal  friend ; 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


47 


and  no  departing  member  has  ever  retired  from 
that  dignified  body  amid  warmer  wishes  for  his  hap- 
piness than  those  that  attended  Franklin  Pierce. 

His  father  had  died  three  years  before,  in  1839, 
at  the  mansion  which  he  built,  after  the  original 
log  cabin  grew  too  narrow  for  his  rising  family  and 
fortunes.  The  mansion  was  spacious,  as  the  liberal 
hospitality  of  the  occupant  required,  and  stood  on 
a little  eminence,  surrounded  by  verdure  and  abun- 
dance, and  a happy  population,  where,  half  a cen- 
tury before,  the  revolutionary  soldier  had  come  alone 
into  the  wilderness,  and  levelled  the  primeval  for- 
est trees.  After  being  spared  to  behold  the  distinc- 
tion of  his  son,  he  departed  this  life  at  the  age  of 
eighty-one  years,  in  perfect  peace,  and,  until  within 
a few  hours  of  his  death,  in  the  full  possession  of 
his  intellectual  powers.  His  last  act  was  one  of 
charity  to  a poor  neighbor  — a fitting  close  to  a life 
that  had  abounded  in  such  deeds.  Governor  Pierce 
was  a man  of  admirable  qualities  — brave,  active, 
public-spirited,  endowed  with  natural  authority, 
courteous  yet  simple  in  his  manners  ; and  in  his 
son  we  may  perceive  these  same  attributes,  modi- 
fied and  softened  by  a finer  texture  of  character, 
illuminated  by  higher  intellectual  culture,  and 
polished  by  a larger  intercourse  with  the  world, 
but  as  substantial  and  sterling  as  in  the  good  old 
patriot. 

Franklin  Pierce  had  removed  from  Hillsborough 
in  1838,  and  taken  up  his  residence  at  Concord,  the 


48 


LIFE  OF 


capital  of  New  Hampshire.  On  this  occasion,  the 
citizens  of  his  native  town  invited  him  to  a public 
dinner,  in  token  of  their  affection  and  respect.  In 
accordance  with  his  usual  taste,  he  gratefully  ac- 
cepted the  kindly  sentiment,  but  declined  the  pub- 
lic demonstration  of  it. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


49 


CHAPTER  in. 

HIS  SUCCESS  AT  THE  BAR. 

Franklin  Pierce’s  earliest  effort  at  the  bar,  as 
we  have  already  observed,  was  an  unsuccessful 
one ; but  instead  of  discouraging  him,  the  failure 
had  only  served  to  awaken  the  consciousness  of 
latent  power,  and  the  resolution  to  bring  it  out. 
Since  those  days,  he  had  indeed  gained  reputation 
as  a lawyer.  So  much,  however,  was  the  tenor  of 
his  legal  life  broken  up  by  the  months  of  public 
service  subtracted  from  each  year,  and  such  was 
the  inevitable  tendency  of  his  thoughts  towards 
political  subjects,  that  he  could  but  very  partially 
avail  himself  of  the  opportunities  of  professional 
advancement.  But  on  retiring  from  the  Senate,  he 
appears  to  have  started  immediately  into  full  prac- 
tice. Though  the  people  of  New  Hampshire  already 
knew  him  well,  yet  his  brilliant  achievements  as 
an  advocate  brought  him  more  into  their  view,  and 
into  closer  relations  with  them,  than  he  had  ever 
before  been.  He  now  met  his  countrymen,  as  rep- 
resented in  the  jury  box,  face  to  face,  and  made 
them  feel  what  manner  of  man  he  was.  Their  sen- 
timent towards  him  soon  grew  to  be  nothing  short 
of  enthusiasm ; love,  pride,  the  sense  of  brother- 
5 D 


50 


LIFE  OF 


hood,  affectionate  sympathy,  and  perfect  trust,  all 
mingled  in  it.  It  was  the  influence  of  a great  heart 
pervading  the  general  heart,  and  throbbing  with  it 
in  the  same  pulsation. 

It  has  never  been  the  writer’s  good  fortune  to 
listen  to  one  of  Franklin  Pierce’s  public  speeches, 
whether  at  the  bar  or  elsewhere ; nor,  by  diligent 
inquiry,  has  he  been  able  to  gain  a very  definite 
idea  of  the  mode  in  which  he  produces  his  effects. 
To  me,  therefore,  his  forensic  displays  are  in  the 
same  category  with  those  of  Patrick  Henry,  or  any 
other  orator  whose  tongue,  beyond  the  memory  of 
man,  has  mouldered  into  dust.  His  power  results,  no 
•doubt,  in  great  measure,  from  the  earnestness  with 
which  he  imbues  himself  with  the  conception  of 
his  client’s  cause ; insomuch  that  he  makes  it  en- 
tirely his  own,  and,  never  undertaking  a case  which 
he  believes  to  be  unjust,  contends  with  his  whole 
heart  and  conscience,  as  well  as  intellectual  force, 
for  victory.  His  labor  in  the  preparation  of  his 
cases  is  said  to  be  unremitting;  and  he  throws  him- 
self with  such  energy  into  a trial  of  importance,  as 
wholly  to  exhaust  his  strength. 

Few  lawyers,  probably,  have  been  interested  in 
a wider  variety  of  business  than  he ; its  scope  com- 
prehends the  great  causes  where  immense  pecuni- 
ary interests  are  concerned  — from  which,  however, 
he  is  always  ready  to  turn  aside,  to  defend  the 
humble  rights  of  the  poor  man,  or  give  his  pro- 
tection to  one  unjustly  accused.  As  one  of  my 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


51 


correspondents  observes,  “ When  an  applicant  has 
interested  him  by  a recital  of  oppression,  fraud,  or 
wrong,  General  Pierce  never  investigates  the  man’s 
estate  before  engaging  in  his  business ; neither  does 
he  calculate  whose  path  he  may  cross.  I have  been 
privy  to  several  instances  of  the  noblest  independ- 
ence on  his  part,  in  pursuing,  to  the  disrepute  of 
those  who  stood  well  in  the  community,  the  weal 
of  an  obscure  client  with  a good  cause.” 

In  the  practice  of  the  law,  as  Pierce  pursued  it, 
in  one  or  another  of  the  court  houses  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, the  rumor  of  each  successive  struggle  and 
success  resounded  over  the  rugged  hills,  and  per- 
ished without  a record.  Those  mighty  efforts,  into 
which  he  put  all  his  strength,  before  a county  court, 
and  addressing  a jury  of  yeomen,  have  necessarily 
been,  as  regards  the  evanescent  memory  of  any 
particular  trial,  like  the  eloquence  that  is  sometimes 
poured  out  in  a dream.  In  other  spheres  of  action, 
with  no  greater  expenditure  of  mental  energy,  words 
have  been  spoken  that  endure  from  age  to  age  — 
deeds  done  that  harden  into  history.  But  this,  per- 
haps the  most  earnest  portion  of  Franklin  Pierce’s 
life,  has  left  few  materials  from  which  it  can  be 
written.  There  is  before  me  only  one  report  of  a 
case  in  which  he  was  engaged  — the  defence  of  the 
"Wentworths,  at  a preliminary  examination,  on  a 
charge  of  murder.  His  speech  occupied  four  hours 
in  the  delivery,  and  handles  a confused  medley  of 
facts  with  masterly  skill,  bringing  them  to  bear  one 


52 


LIFE  OF 


upon  another,  and  making  the  entire  mass,  as  it 
were,  transparent,  so  that  the  truth  may  be  seen 
through  it.  The  whole  hangs  together  too  closely 
to  permit  the  quotation  of  passages. 

The  writer  has  been  favored  with  communica- 
tions from  two  individuals,  who  have  enjoyed  the 
best  of  opportunities  to  become  acquainted  with 
General  Pierce’s  character  as  a lawyer.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  graceful  and  generous  tribute  of  a 
gentleman,  who,  of  late,  more  frequently  than  any 
other,  has  been  opposed  to  him,  at  the  bar  : — 

“ General  Pierc§  cannot  be  said  to  have  com- 
menced his  career  at  the  bar,  in  earnest,  until  after 
his  resignation  of  the  office  of  senator,  in  1842. 
And  it  is  a convincing  proof  of  his  eminent  pow- 
ers, that  he  at  once  placed  himself  in  the  very  first 
rank  at  a bar  so  distinguished  for  ability  as  that  of 
New  Hampshire.  It  is  confessed  by  all,  who  have 
the  means  of  knowledge  and  judgment  on  this 
subject,  that  in  no  state  of  the  Union  are  causes 
tried  with  more  industry  of  preparation,  skill,  per- 
severance, energy,  or  vehement  effort  to  succeed. 

“ During  much  of  this  time,  my  practice  in  our 
courts  was  suspended ; and  it  is  only  within  three 
or  four  years  that  I have  had  opportunities  of  inti- 
mately knowing  his  powers  as  an  advocate,  by  be- 
ing associated  with  him  at  the  bar ; and,  most  of 
all,  of  appreciating  and  feeling  that  power,  by 
being  opposed  to  him  in  the  trial  of  causes  before 
juries.  Far  more  than  any  other  man,  whom  it 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


53 


has  been  my  fortune  to  meet,  he  makes  himself 
felt  by  one  who  tries  a case  against  him.  From 
the  first,  he  impresses  on  his  opponent  a conscious- 
ness of  the  necessity  of  a deadly  struggle,  not  only 
in  order  to  win  the  victory,  but  to  avoid  defeat. 

“ His  vigilance  and  perseverance,  omitting  noth- 
ing in  the  preparation  and  introduction  of  testi- 
mony, even  to  the  minutest  details,  which  can  be 
useful  to  his  clients ; his  watchful  attention,  seizing 
on  every  weak  point  in  the  opposite  case ; his 
quickness  and  readiness ; his  sound  and  excellent 
judgment ; his  keen  insight  into  character  and  mo- 
tives, his  almost  intuitive  knowledge  of  men ; his 
ingenious  and  powerful  cross  examinations ; his 
adroitness  in  turning  aside  troublesome  testimony, 
and  availing  himself  of  every  favorable  point ; his 
quick  sense  of  the  ridiculous ; his  pathetic  appeals 
to  the  feelings  ; his  sustained  eloquence,  and  re- 
markably energetic  declamation,  — all  mark  him 
for  a 1 leader.’ 

“ From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  trial  of 
a case,  nothing  with  him  is  neglected,  which  can 
by  possibility  honorably  conduce  to  success.  His 
manner  is  always  respectful  and  deferential  to  the 
court,  captivating  to  the  jury,  and  calculated  to 
conciliate  the  good  will  even  of  those  who  would 
be  otherwise  indifferent  spectators.  In  short,  he 
plays  the  part  of  a successful  actor ; successful, 
because  he  always  identifies  himself  with  his  part, 
and  in  him  it  is  not  acting. 

5* 


54 


LIFE  OF 


“ Perhaps,  as  would  be  expected  by  those  who 
know  his  generosity  of  heart,  and  his  scorn  of 
every  thing  like  oppression  or  extortion,  he  is  most 
powerful  in  his  indignant  denunciations  of  fraud  or 
injustice,  and  his  addresses  to  the  feelings  in  be- 
half of  the  poor  and  lowly,  and  the  sufferers  under 
wrong.  I remember  to  have  heard  of  his  extraor- 
dinary power  on  one  occasion,  when  a person,  who 
had  offered  to  procure  arrears  of  a pension  for 
revolutionary  services,  had  appropriated  to  himself 
a most  unreasonable  share  of  the  money.  General 
Pierce  spoke  of  the  frequency  of  these  instances,  and, 
before  the  numerous  audience,  offered  his  aid,  freely 
and  gratuitously,  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  any 
widow  or  representative  of  a revolutionary  officer 
or  soldier,  who  had  been  made  the  subject  of  such 
extortion. 

“ The  reply  of  the  poor  man,  in  the  anecdote 
related  by  Lord  Campbell,  of  Harry  Erskine,  would 
be  applicable,  as  exhibiting  a feeling  kindred  to 
that  with  which  General  Pierce  is  regarded  : 
‘ There’s  no  a puir  man  in  a’  Scotland  need  to 
want  a friend  or  fear  an  enemy,  sae  lang  as  Harry 
Erskine  lives ! ’ ” 

We  next  give  his  aspect  as  seen  from  the  bench, 
in  the  following  carefully-prepared  and  discrim- 
inating article,  from  the  chief  justice  of  New 
Hampshire : — 

“ In  attempting  to  estimate  the  character  and 
qualifications  of  Mr.  Pierce  as  a lawyer  and  an 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


55 


advocate,  we  undertake  a delicate,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  an  agreeable  task.  The  profession  of  the  law, 
practised  by  men  of  liberal  and  enlightened  minds, 
and  unstained  by  the  sordidness  which  more  or  less 
affects  all  human  pursuits,  invariably  confers  honor 
upon,  and  is  honored  by  its  followers.  An  integ- 
rity above  suspicion,  an  eloquence  alike  vigorous 
and  persuasive,  and  an  intuitive  sagacity  have 
earned  for  Mr.  Pierce  the  reputation  that  always 
follows  them.. 

“ The  last  case  of  paramount  importance  in 
which  he  was  engaged  as  counsel  was  that  of 
Morrison  v.  Philbrick,  tried  in  the  month  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1852,  at  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the 
county  of  Belknap.  There  was  on  both  sides  an  array 
of  eminent  professional  talent,  Messrs.  Pierce,  Bell, 
and  Bellows  appearing  for  the  defendant,  and  Messrs. 
Atherton  and  Whipple  for  the  plaintiff.  The  case 
was  one  of  almost  unequalled  interest  to  the  pub- 
lic generally,  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  country 
lying  around  the  lower  part  of  Lake  Winnipise- 
ogee.  A company,  commonly  called  the  Lake 
Company,  had  become  the  owners  of  many  of  the 
outlets  of  the  streams  supplying  the  lake,  and  by 
means  of  their  works  at  such  places,  and  at  Union 
Bridge,  a few  miles  below,  were  enabled  to  keep 
back  the  waters  of  the  lake,  and  to  use  them,  as 
occasion  should  require,  to  supply  the  mills  at  Low- 
ell. The  plaintiff  alleged  that  the  dam  at  Union 
Bridge  had  caused  the  water  to  rise  higher  than 


56 


LIFE  OF 


was  done  by  the  dam  that  existed  in  the  year  1828, 
and  that  he  was  essentially  injured  thereby.  The 
case  had  been  on  trial  nearly  seven  weeks.  Evi- 
dence equivalent  to  the  testimony  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty  witnesses  had  been  laid  before  the  jury. 
Upon  this  immense  mass  of  facts,  involving  a 
great  number  of  issues,  Mr.  Pierce  was  to  meet  his 
most  formidable  opponent  in  the  state,  Mr.  Ather- 
ton. In  that  gentleman  are  united  many  of  the 
rarest  qualifications  of  an  advocate.  Of  inimita- 
ble self-possession ; with  a coolness  and  clearness 
of  intellect  which  no  sudden  emergencies  can  dis- 
turb ; with  that  confidence  in  his  resources  which 
nothing  but  native  strength,  aided  by  the  most 
thorough  training,  can  bestow  ; with  a felicity  and 
fertility  of  illustration,  the  result  alike  of  an  ex- 
quisite natural  taste  and  a cultivation  of  those 
studies  which  refine  while  they  strengthen  the  mind 
for  forensic  contests,  — Mr.  Atherton’s  argument 
was  listened  to  with  an  earnestness  and  interest 
which  showed  the  conviction  of  his  audience  that 
no  ordinary  man  was  addressing  them. 

“ No  one  who  witnessed  that  memorable  trial  will 
soon  forget  the  argument  of  Mr.  Pierce  on  that  oc- 
casion. He  was  the  counsel  for  the  defendant,  and 
was  therefore  to  precede  Mr.  Atherton.  He  was 
to  analyze  and  unfold  to  the  jury  this  vast  body 
of  evidence  under  the.  watchful  eyes  of  an  oppo- 
nent at  once  enterprising  and  cautious,  and  before 
whom  it  was  necessary  to  be  both  bold  and  skilful. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


57 


He  was  to  place  himself  in  the  position  of  the  jury, 
to  see  the  evidence  as  they  would  be  likely  to  re- 
gard it,  to  understand  the  character  of  their  minds, 
and  what  views  would  be  the  most  likely  to  impress 
them.  He  was  not  only  to  be  familiar  with  his 
own  case,  but  to  anticipate  that  of  his  opponent, 
and  answer  as  he  best  might  the  argument  of  the 
counsel.  And  most  admirably  did  he  discharge 
the  duties  he  had  assumed  on  behalf  of  his  client. 
Eminently  graceful  and  attractive  in  his  manner  at 
all  times,  his  demeanor  was  then  precisely  what  it 
should  have  been,  showing  a manly  confidence  in 
himself  and  his  case,  and  a courteous  deference  to  the 
tribunal  he  was  addressing.  His  erect  and  manly 
figure,  his  easy  and  unembarrassed  air,  bespoke 
the  favorable  attention  of  his  audience.  His  ear- 
nest devotion  to  his  cause,  his  deep  emotion,  evi- 
dently suppressed,  but  for  that  very  reason  all  the 
more  interesting,  diffused  themselves  like  electricity 
through  his  hearers.  And  when,  as  often  happened, 
in  the  course  of  his  argument,  his  clear  and  musi- 
cal accents  fell  upon  the  ear  in  eloquent  and  pointed 
sentences,  gratifying  the  taste  while  they  satisfied 
the  reason,  no  man  could  avoid  turning  to  his 
neighbor,  and  expressing  by  his  looks  that  pleasure 
which  the  very  depth  of  his  interest  forbade  him  to 
express  in  words.  And  when  the  long  trial  was 
over,  every  one  remembered  with  satisfaction  that 
these  two  distinguished  gentlemen  had  met  each 
other  during  a most  exciting  and  exhausting  trial 


58 


LIFE  OF 


of  seven  weeks,  and  that  no  unkind  words,  or  cap- 
tious passages,  had  occurred  between  them,  to  di- 
minish their  mutual  respect,  or  that  in  which  they 
were  held  by  their  fellow-citizens, 

“ In  the  above  remarks,  we  have  indicated  a few 
of  Mr.  Pierce’s  characteristics  as  an  advocate ; but 
he  possesses  other  endowments,  to  which  we  have 
not  alluded.  In  the  first  place,  as  he  is  a perfectly 
fearless  man,  so  he  is  a perfectly  fearless  advocate ; 
and  true  courage  is  as  necessary  to  the  civilian  as 
to  the  soldier,  and  smiles  and  frowns  Mr.  Pierce 
disregards  alike  in  the  undaunted  discharge  of  his 
duty.  He  never  fears  to  uphold  his  client,  how- 
ever unpopular  his  cause  may  seem  to  be  for  the 
moment.  It  is  this  courage  which  kindles  his  elo- 
quence, inspires  his  conduct,  and  gives  direction 
and  firmness  to  his  skill.  This  it  is  which  impels 
him  onward,  at  all  risks,  to  lay  bare  every  ‘ mystery 
of  iniquity  ’ which  he  believes  is  threatening  his 
case.  He  does  not  ask  himself  whether  his  oppo- 
nent be  not  a man  of  wealth  and  influence,  of 
whom  it  might  be  for  his  interest  to  speak  with 
care  and  circumspection,  but  he  devotes  himself 
with  a ready  zeal  to  his  cause,  careless  of  aught 
but  how  he  may  best  discharge  his  duty.  His  ar- 
gumentative powers  are  of  the  highest  order.  He 
never  takes  before  the  court  a position  which  he 
believes  untenable.  He  has  a quick  and  sure  per- 
ception of  his  points,  and  the  power  of  enforcing 
them  by  apt  and  pertinent  illustrations.  He  sees 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


59 


the  relative  importance  and  weight  of  different 
views,  and  can  assign  to  each  its  proper  place,  and 
brings  forward  the  main  body  of  his  reasoning  in 
prominent  relief,  without  distracting  the  attention 
by  unimportant  particulars.  And  above  all,  he  has 
the  good  sense,  so  rarely  shown  by'  many,  to  stop 
when  he  has  said  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  elu- 
cidation of  his  subject.  With  a proper  confidence 
in  his  own  perceptions,  he  states  his  views  so  per- 
tinently, and  in  such  precise  and  logical  terms,  that 
they  cannot  but  be  felt  and  appreciated.  He  never 
mystifies  ; he  never  attempts  to  pervert  words  from 
then  proper  and  legitimate  meaning,  to  answer  a 
temporary  purpose. 

“ His  demeanor  at  the  bar  may  be  pronounced 
faultless.  His  courtesy  in  the  court  house,  like  his 
courtesy  elsewhere,  is  that  which  springs  from  self- 
respect,  and  from  a kindly  heart,  disposing  its 
owner  to  say  and  do  kindly  things.  But  he  would 
be  a courageous  man,  who,  presuming  upon  the 
affability  of  Mr.  Pierce’s  manner,  would  venture  a 
second  time  to  attack  him ; for  he  would  long  re- 
member the  rebuke  that  followed  his  first  attack. 
There  is  a ready  repartee  and  a quick  and  cutting 
sarcasm  in  his  manner  when  he  chooses  to  display 
it,  which  it  requires  a man  of  considerable  nerve  to 
■withstand.  He  is  peculiarly  happy  in  the  exami- 
nation of  witnesses  — that  art  in  which  so  few  excel. 
He  never  browbeats,  he  never  attempts  to  terrify. 
He  is  never  rude  or  discourteous.  But  the  equiv- 


60 


LIFE  OF 


ocating  witness  soon  discovers  that  his  falsehood 
is  hunted  out  of  its  recesses  with  an  unsparing  de- 
termination. If  he  is  dogged  and  surly,  he  is  met 
by  a spirit  as  resolute  as  his  own.  If  he  is  smooth 
and  plausible,  the  veil  is  lifted  from  him  by  a firm 
but  graceful  hand.  If  he  is  pompous  and  vain,  no 
ridicule  was  ever  more  perfect  than  that  to  which 
he  listens  with  astonished  and  mortified  ears. 

“ The  eloquence  of  Mr.  Pierce  is  of  a character 
not  to  be  easily  forgotten.  He  understands  men, 
their  passions,  and  their  feelings.  He  knows  the 
way  to  their  hearts,  and  can  make  them  vibrate  to 
his  touch.  His  language  always  attracts  the  hearer. 
A graceful  and  manly  carriage,  bespeaking  him  at 
once  the  gentleman  and  the  true  man,  a manner 
warmed  by  the  ardent  glow  of  an  earnest  belief, 
an  enunciation  ringing,  distinct,  and  impressive  be- 
yond that  of  most  men,  a command  of  brilliant 
and  expressive  language,  and  an  accurate  taste, 
together  with  a sagacious  and  instinctive  insight 
into  the  points  of  his  case,  are  the  secrets  of  his 
success.  It  is  thus  that  audiences  are  moved,  and 
truth  ascertained ; and  he  will  ever  be  the  most  suc- 
cessful advocate  who  can  approach  the  nearest  to 
this  lofty  and  difficult  position. 

“ Mr.  Pierce’s  views  as  a constitutional  lawyer  are 
such  as  have  been  advocated  by  the  ablest  minds 
of  America.  They  are  those  which,  taking  their 
rise  in  the  heroic  age  of  the  country,  were  trans- 
mitted to  him  by  a noble  father,  worthy  of  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


61 


times  in  which  he  lived,  worthy  of  that  revolution 
which  he  assisted  in  bringing  about.  He  believes 
that  the  constitution  was  made,  not  to  be  subverted, 
but  to  be  sacredly  preserved ; that  a republic  is  per- 
fectly consistent  with  the  conservation  of  law,  of 
rational  submission  to  right  authority,  and  of  true 
self-government.  Equally  removed  from  that  ma- 
lignant hostility  to  order  which  characterizes  the 
demagogues  who  are  eager  to  rise  upon  the  ruins 
even  of  freedom,  and  from  that  barren  and  bigoted 
narrowness  which  would  oppose  all  rational  free- 
dom of  opinion,  he  is,  in  its  loftiest  and  most  enno- 
bling sense,  a friend  of  that  Union,  without  which 
the  honored  name  of  American  citizen  would  be- 
come a by-word  among  the  nations.  And  if,  as 
we  fervently  pray  and  confidently  expect  he  will, 
Mr.  Pierce  shall  display  before  the  great  tribunals 
of  the  nation  the  courage,  the  consistency,  the  sa- 
gacity, and  the  sense  of  honor,  which  have  already 
secured  for  him  so  many  thousands  of  devoted 
friends,  and  which  have  signalized  both  his  private 
and  professional  life,  his  administration  will  long 
be  held  in  grateful  remembrance  as  one  of  which 
the  sense  of  right  and  the  sagacity  to  perceive  it,  a 
clear  insight  into  the  true  destinies  of  the  country, 
and  a determination  to  uphold  them  at  whatever 
sacrifice,  were  the  predominant  characteristics.” 

It  may  appear  singular  that  Franklin  Pierce  has 
not  taken  up  his  residence  in  some  metropolis, 
where  his  great  forensic  abilities  would  so  readily 
6 


62 


LIFE  OF 


find  a more  conspicuous  theatre,  and  a far  richer 
remuneration  than  heretofore.  He  himself,  it  is 
understood,  has  sometimes  contemplated  a removal, 
and,  two  or  three  years  since,  had  almost  deter- 
mined on  settling  in  Baltimore.  But  his  native 
state,  where  he  is  known  so  well,  and  regarded 
with  so  much  familiar  affection,  which  he  has 
served  so  faithfully,  and  which  rewards  him  so  gen- 
erously with  its  confidence,  New  Hampshire,  with 
its  granite  hills,  must  always  be  his  home.  He 
will  dwell  there,  except  when  public  duty,  for  a 
season,  shall  summon  him  away  ; he  will  die  there, 
and  give  his  dust  to  its  soil. 

It  was  at  his  option,  in  1846,  to  accept  the  high- 
est legal  position  in  the  country,  setting  aside  the 
bench,  and  the  one  which,  undoubtedly,  would 
most  have  gratified  his  professional  aspirations. 
President  Polk,  with  whom  he  had  been  associated 
on  the  most  friendly  terms  in  Congress,  now  offered 
him  the  post  of  attorney  general  of  the  United 
States.  “ In  tendering  to  you  this  position  in  my 
cabinet,”  writes  the  president,  “ I have  been  gov- 
erned by  the  high  estimate  which  I place  upon 
your  character  and  eminent  qualifications  to  fill 
it.”  The  letter,  in  which  this  proposal  is  declined, 
shows  so  much  of  the  writer’s  real  self  that  we 
quote  a portion  of  it. 

“Although  the  early  years  of  my  manhood  were 
devoted  to  public  life,  it  was  never  really  suited  to 
my  taste.  I longed,  as  I am  sure  you  must  often 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


63 


have  done,  for  the  quiet  and  independence  that 
belong  only  to  the  private  citizen ; and  now,  at 
forty,  I feel  that  desire  stronger  than  ever. 

“ Coming  so  unexpectedly  as  this  offer  does,  it 
would  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  arrange  the 
business  of  an  extensive  practice,  between  this  and 
the  first  of  November,  in  a manner  at  all  satisfac- 
tory to  myself,  or  to  those  who  have  committed 
their  interests  to  my  care,  and  who  rely  on  my  ser- 
vices. Besides,  you  know  that  Mrs.  Pierce’s  health, 
while  at  "Washington,  was  very  delicate.  It  is,  I 
fear,  even  more  so  now ; and  the  responsibilities 
which  the  proposed  change  would  necessarily  im- 
pose upon  her  ought,  probably,  in  themselves,  to 
constitute  an  insurmountable  objection  to  leaving 
our  quiet  home  for  a public  station  at  Wash- 
ington. 

“ When  I resigned  my  seat  in  the  Senate  in  1842, 
I did  it  with  the  fixed  purpose  never  again  to  be 
voluntarily  separated  from  my  family  for  any  con- 
siderable length  of  time,  except  at  the  call  of  my 
country  in  time  of  war  ; and  yet  this  consequence, 
for  the  reason  before  stated,  and  on  account  of 
climate,  would  be  very  likely  to  result  from  my 
acceptance. 

“ These  are  some  of  the  considerations  which 
have  influenced  my  decision.  You  will,  I am  sure, 
appreciate  my  motives.  You  will  not  believe  that 
I have  weighed  my  personal  convenience  and  ease 
against  the  public  interest,  especially  as  the  office 


64 


LIFE  OF 


is  one  which,  if  not  sought,  would  be  readily  ac- 
cepted by  gentlemen  who  could  bring  to  your  aid 
attainments  and  qualifications  vastly  superior  to 
mine.” 

Previous  to  the  offer  of  the  attorney  generalship, 
the  appointment  of  United  States  senator  had  been 
tendered  to  Pierce  by  Governor  Steele,  and  declined. 
It  is  unquestionable  that,  at  this  period,  he  hoped 
and  expected  to  spend  a life  of  professional  toil  in 
a private  station,  undistinguished  except  by  the 
exercise  of  his  great  talents  in  peaceful  pursuits. 
But  such  was  not  his  destiny.  The  contingency  to 
which  he  referred  in  the  above  letter,  as  the  sole 
exception  to  his  purpose  of  never  being  separated 
from  his  family,  was  now  about  to  occur.  Nor  did 
he  fail  to  comport  himself  as  not  only  that  intima- 
tion, but  the  whole  tenor  of  his  character,  gave 
reason  to  anticipate. 

During  the  years  embraced  in  this  chapter,  — 
between  1842  and  1847,  — he  had  constantly  taken 
an  efficient  interest  in  the  politics  of  the  state, 
but  had  uniformly  declined  the  honors  which  New 
Hampshire  was  at  all  times  ready  to  confer  upon 

him.  A democratic  convention  nominated  him  for 

% 

governor,  but  could  not  obtain  his  acquiescence. 
One  of  the  occasions  on  which  he  most  strenuously 
exerted  himself  was  in  holding  the  democratic  party 
loyal  to  its  principles,  in  opposition  to  the  course  * 
of  John  P.  Hale.  This  gentleman,  then  a repre- 
sentative in  Congress,  had  broken  with  his  party 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


65 


on  no  less  important  a point  than  the  annexation 
of  Texas.  He  has  never  since  acted  with  the  de- 
mocracy, and  has  long  been  a leader  of  the  free  soil 
party. 

In  18-44  died  Frank  Robert,  son  of  Franklin 
Pierce,  aged  four  years,  a little  boy  of  rare  beauty 
and  promise,  and  whose  death  was  the  greatest 
affliction  that  his  father  has  experienced.  His  only 
surviving  child  is  a son,  now  eleven  years  old. 

6 * E 


66 


LIFE  OF 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  MEXICAN  WAR HIS  JOURNAL  OF  THE  MARCH  FROM 

VERA  CRUZ. 

"When  Franklin  Pierce  declined  the  honorable 
offer  of  the  attorney  generalship  of  the  United 
States,  he  intimated  that  there  might  be  one  con- 
tingency in  which  he  would  feel  it  his  duty  to  give 
up  the  cherished  purpose  of  spending  the  remain- 
der of  his  life  in  a private  station.  That  exceptional 
case  was  brought  about,  in  1847,  by  the  Mexi- 
can war.  He  showed  his  readiness  to  redeem  the 
pledge  by  enrolling  himself  as  the  earliest  volun- 
teer of  a company  raised  in  Concord,  and  went 
through  the  regular  drill,  with  his  fellow-soldiers, 
as  a private  in  the  ranks.  On  the  passage  of  the 
bill  for  the  increase  of  the  army,  he  received  the  ap- 
pointment of  colonel  of  the  Ninth  Regiment,  which 
was  the  quota  of  New  England  towards  the  ten 
that  were  to  be  raised.  And  shortly  afterwards,  — 
in  March,  1847,  — he  was  commissioned  as  briga- 
dier general  in  the  army ; his  brigade  consisting 
of  regiments  from  the  extreme  north,  the  extreme 
west,  and  the  extreme  south  of  the  Union. 

There  is  nothing  in  any  other  country  similar 
to  what  we  see  in  our  own,  when  the  blast  of  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


67 


trumpet  at  once  converts  men  of  peaceful  pursuits 
into  warriors.  Every  war  in  which  America  has 
been  engaged  has  done  this ; the  valor  that  wins 
our  battles  is  not  the  trained  hardihood  of  veter- 
ans, but  a native  and  spontaneous  fire  ; and  there 
is  surely  a chivalrous  beauty  in  the  devotion  of  the 
citizen  soldier  to  his  country’s  cause,  which  the 
man  who  makes  arms  his  profession,  and  is  but 
doing  his  regular  business  on  the  field  of  battle, 
cannot  pretend  to  rival.  Taking  the  Mexican  war 
as  a specimen,  this  peculiar  composition  of  an 
American  army,  as  well  in  respect  to  its  officers  as 
its  private  soldiers,  seems  to  create  a spirit  of  ro- 
mantic adventure  which  more  than  supplies  the 
place  of  disciplined  courage. 

The  author  saw  General  Pierce,  in  Boston,  on 
the  eve  of  his  departure  for  Vera  Cruz.  He  had 
been  intensely  occupied,  since  his  appointment,  in 
effecting  the  arrangements  necessary  on  leaving  his 
affairs,  as  well  as  by  the  preparations,  military  and 
personal,  demanded  by  the  expedition.  The  trans- 
ports were  waiting  at  Newport  to  receive  the  troops. 
He  was  now  in  the  midst  of  bustle,  with  some  of 
the  officers  of  his  command  about  him,  mingled 
with  the  friends  whom  he  was  to  leave  behind. 
The  severest  point  of  the  crisis  was  over,  for  he 
had  already  bidden  his  family  farewell.  His  spirits 
appeared  to  have  risen  with  the  occasion.  He  was 
evidently  in  his  element ; nor,  to  say  the  truth,  dan- 
gerous as  was  the  path  before  him,  could  it  be 


68 


LIFE  OF 


regretted  that  his  life  was  now  to  have  the  oppor- 
- tunity  of  that  species  of  success  which  — in  his 
youth,  at  least — he  had  considered  the  best  worth 
struggling  for.  He  looked  so  fit  to  be  a soldier, 
that  it  was  impossible  to  doubt  — not  merely  his 
good  conduct,  which  was  as  certain  before  the  event 
as  afterwards,  but  — his  good  fortune  in  the  field, 
and  his  fortunate  return. 

He  sailed  from  Newport  on  the  27th  of  May, 
in  the  bark  Kepler,  having  on  board  three  com- 
panies of  the  Ninth  Regiment  of  Infantry,  to- 
gether with  Colonel  Ransom,  its  commander,  and 
the  officers  belonging  to  the  detachment.  The 
passage  was  long  and  tedious,  with  protracted 
calms,  and  so  smooth  a sea  that  a sail  boat  might 
have  performed  the  voyage  in  safety.  The  Kepler 
arrived  at  Vera  Cruz  in  precisely  a month  after 
her  departure  from  the  United  States,  without 
speaking  a single  vessel  from  the  south  during  her 
passage,  and,  of  course,  receiving  no  intelligence 
as  to  the  position  and  state  of  the  army  which 
these  reenforcements  were  to  join. 

From  a journal  kept  by  General  Pierce,  and 
intended  only  for  the  perusal  of  his  family  and 
friends,  we  present  some  extracts.  They  are  mere 
hasty  jottings-down  in  camp,  and  at  the  intervals 
of  weary  marches,  but  will  doubtless  bring  the 
reader  closer  to  the  man  than  any  narrative  which 
we  could  substitute. 

“ June  28.  The  vomito  rages  fearfully  ; and  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


69 


city  every  where  appears  like  the  very  habitation 
of  pestilence.  I have  ordered  the  troops  to  be 
taken  directly  from  the  transports  to  Virgara,  an 
extensive  sand  beach  upon  the  gulf,  where  there  is 
already  an  encampment  consisting  of  four  or  five 
hundred  men,  under  the  command  of  Major  Lally. 
The  officers  are  under  much  apprehension  on  ac- 
count of  the  climate  and  the  vomito,  the  statements 
with  regard  to  which  are  perhaps  exaggerated.  My 
orders  are  to  make  no  delay  here,  and  yet  there  is 
no  preparation  for  my  departure.  About  two  thou- 
sand wild  mules  had  been  collected ; but  through 
the  carelessness  of  persons  employed  by  the  quar- 
termaster’s department,  (a  precious  set  of  scoun- 
drels, it  being  possible  to  obtain  few  but  desperate 
characters  to  enter  this  service  here  at  this  season,) 
a stampede  has  occurred  to-day,  by  which  fifteen 
hundred  have  been  lost.  The  Mexicans  fully  be- 
lieve that  most  of  my  command  must  die  of  vomito 
before  I can  be  prepared  to  march  into  the  interior. 

“ July  5.  Pitched  my  tent  at  Virgara,  two  miles 
from  the  city.  Mornings  close,  and  heat  excessive. 
Fine  breeze  after  eleven  o’clock,  with  breakers  dash- 
ing upon  the  smooth  beach  for  three  miles.  Our 
tents  are  upon  the  sand,  which  is  as  hard  as  the 
beach  at  Lynn  or  Hampton.  Heavy  rains,  and 
tremendous  thunder,  and  the  most  vivid  and  con- 
tinuous flashes  of  lightning,  almost  every  night. 
Many  of  the  officers  and  soldiers  are  indisposed ; 
but  as  yet  there  is  no  clear  case  of  vomito.  The 


70 


LIFE  OF 


troops  are  under  drill  every  morning,  the  sun  being 
too  intense  and  oppressive  to  risk  exposure  at  any 
other  period  of  the  day.  I find  my  tent  upon  the 
beach  decidedly  preferable  to  any  quarters  in  the 
city.  Neither  officers  nor  soldiers  are  allowed  to 
go  to  the  city  except  by  special  permission,  and  on 
duty. 

11  July  6.  Mules  and  mustangs  are  being  col- 
lected daily ; but  they  are  wild,  unaccustomed  to 
the  harness,  and  most  of  them  even  to  the  bridle. 
Details  from  the  different  commands  are  actively 
engaged  in  taming  these  wild  animals,  and  break- 
ing them  to  harness. 

“ July  7.  Last  night,  at  ten  o’clock,  there  was  a 
stampede,  as  it  is  called  in  camp.  The  report  of 
musketry  at  the  advanced  picket  induced  me  to 
order  the  long  roll  to  be  beaten,  and  the  whole 
command  was  at  once  formed  in  line  of  battle.  I 
proceeded  in  person,  with  two  companies,  to  the 
advanced  picket,  and  found  no  ground  for  the 
alarm,  although  the  sentinels  insisted  that  a party 
of  guerillas  had  approached  within  gun  shot  of 
their  posts.  I have  ordered  that,  upon  the  repeti- 
tion of  any  such  alarm,  the  two  companies  nearest 
the  picket  shall  proceed  at  once  to  the  advanced 
post.  The  long  roll  will  not  be  beaten  until  a 
report  shall  be  sent  in  from  the  commanding  officer 
of  the  detachment,  who  is  to  take  with  him  a small 
detachment  of  cavalry  as  couriers.  This  will  se- 
cure the  quiet  of  the  camp  at  night,  and  at  the 
same  time  afford  protection  against  surprise. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


71 


“ July  8.  Lieutenant  T.  J.  Whipple,  adjutant  of 
the  Ninth  Infantry,  was  induced  by  curiosity  to 
visit,  with  private  Barnes  of  Manchester,  the  cem- 
etery near  the  wall  of  the  city  — an  imprudent  act, 
especially  as  the  audacity  of  the  guerillas,  and  their 
daily  near  approach,  have  been  well  understood. 
That  he  should  have  gone  with  a single  unarmed 
private,  and  himself  without  arms  except  his  sabre, 
is  astonishing.  Lieutenant  Whipple  was  attacked 
by  six  guerillas,  and  overpowered.  Barnes  escaped, 
and  found  me,  within  half  an  hour,  at  Governor 
Wilson’s  quarters.  I immediately  despatched  a 
troop  of  cavalry  in  pursuit  ; but  no  trace  of  the 
miscreants  has  been  discovered,  and  great  alarm 
is  felt  for  the  safety  of  our  gallant,  but  too  adven- 
turous, friend.  There  was  in  my  command  no 
braver  man  or  better  soldier  than  Whipple. 

11  July  12.  Being  informed  that  Adjutant  Whip- 
ple’s life  had  been  spared,  and  that  he  was  a pris- 
oner with  a band  of  guerillas  about  twelve  or 
fourteen  miles  from  my  camp,  I sent  a strong  de- 
tachment, by  night,  to  surprise  the  ranchero,  and, 
if  possible,  to  recover  our  valued  friend.  The  vil- 
lage was  taken,  but  the  guerillas  had  fled  with 
their  prisoner.  Captain  Duff,  the  efficient  and 
gallant  commander  of  cavalry,  attached  to  my 
command,  having  been  greatly  exposed  in  an  ex- 
cursion in  search  of  W7hipple,  is  dangerously  sick 
of  vomito. 

“ About  eighty  American  horses  have  reached  me 


72 


LIFE  OF 


from  New  Orleans,  and  I shall  put  my  command 
in  motion  to-morrow  or  the  next  day.  I know 
not  how  long  my  delay  might  have  continued, 
but  for  the  activity  of  my  officers  generally,  and 
especially  if  I had  not  secured  the  services  of  a 
most  efficient  staff,  which  has  cheerfully  rendered 
its  aid  in  season  and  out  of  season.  Major  Woods, 
of  the  Fifteenth  Infantry,  a graduate  of  West  Point, 
and  an  officer  of  great  intelligence,  experience,  and 
coolness,  kindly  consented  to  act  as  my  adjutant 
general.  My  aid-de-camp,  Lieutenant  Thom,  of 
the  Topographical  Engineers,  Lieutenant  Cald- 
well, of  the  Marine  Corps,  brigade  commissary, 
and  Lieutenant  Van  Bocklin,  of  the  Seventh  In- 
fantry, brigade  quartermaster,  have  all,  regardless 
of  the  dangers  of  the  climate,  performed  an  amount 
of  labor,  in  pushing  forward  the  preparations  for 
our  march,  which  entitles  them  not  merely  to  my 
thanks,  but  to  a substantial  acknowledgment  from 
government.  Major  Lally  is  dangerously  sick  of 
vomito.  I have  sent  him' in  an  ambulance,  on  my 
mattress,  to  Major  Smith’s  quarters,  in  the  city,  to- 
day. Major  Seymour  is  also  sick,  but  is  deter- 
mined to  go  on  with  the  command.  I visited  the 
gallant  Captain  Duff  this  morning,  and  have  de- 
cided to  send  him  to  the  hospital,  in  the  city.  His 
is  an  undoubted  case  of  the  vomito,  and  I fear  that 
but  slight  hope  of  his  recovery  can  be  reasonably 
indulged.  I feel  his  loss  seriously ; he  was  a truly 
brave  and  efficient  officer. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


73 


" July  13.  After  a delay  of  nearly  three  weeks, 
in  this  debilitating  and  sickly  climate,  where  I had 
reason  to  expect,  before  landing,  a delay  of  not 
more  than  two  days,  — and  after  an  amount  of 
labor  and  perplexity  more  trying  than  an  active 
campaign  in  the  field,  — the  hum  and  clank  of 
preparation,  the  strand  covered  with  wagons,  go- 
ing to  and  returning  from  the  city,  laden  with 
ammunition,  subsistence,  &c.,  sufficiently  indicate 
that  the  long-deferred  movement  is  at  last  to  be 
made. 

“ July  14.  Colonel  Ransom,  with  the  Ninth  In- 
fantry, and  two  companies  of  the  Twelfth,  under 
Captain  "Wood,  left  this  morning,  with  about  eighty 
wagons  of  the  train.  He  will  proceed  to  San  Juan, 
twelve  miles  distant,  on  the  Jalapa  road,  and  there 
await  my  arrival  with  the  remainder  of  the  brigade. 
It  would  be  almost  certain  destruction  to  men  and 
teams,  so  long  as  we  remain  in  tierra  caliente,  to 
march  them  between  the  hours  of  nine  o’clock, 
A.  M.,  and  four,  P.  M.  Colonel  Ransom’s  com- 
mand, therefore,  struck  their  tents  last  night,  load- 
ed their  company  wagons,  and  bivouacked,  in 
order  that  there  might  be  nothing  to  delay  an 
early  start  in  the  morning.  Fortunately,  it  did 
not  rain,  and  the  advance  moved  off  in  fine  order 
and  spirits. 

“ July  15.  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  move  to- 
day, with  the  remainder  of  the  brigade,  on  account 
of  the  deficiency  of  teams.  Notwithstanding  all 
7 


74 


LIFE  OF 


my  exertions,  I shall  be  compelled  to  rely  on  many 
mule  teams,  which,  when  I move,  will  be  in  har- 
ness for  the  first  time.  I have,  however,  sent  off  a 
second  detachment,  consisting  of  four  companies 
of  the  Fourteenth  and  two  companies  of  the  Third 
Infantry,  under  the  command  of  that  accomplished 
and  admirable  officer,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Hebert, 
of  Louisiana. 

“ July  16.  After  much  perplexity  and  delay,  on 
account  of  the  unbroken  and  intractable  teams,  I 
left  the  camp,  this  afternoon,  at  five  o’clock,  with 
the  Fourth  Artillery,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Watson’s 
Marine  Corps,  and  a detachment  of  the  Third 
Dragoons,  with  about  forty  wagons.  The  road 
was  very  heavy  ; the  wheels  sinking  almost  to  the 
hubs  in  sand,  and  the  untried  and  untamed  teams 
almost  constantly  bolting,  in  some  part  of  the 
train.  We  were  occupied  rather  in  brealdng  the 
animals  to  harness,  than  in  performing  a march.  At 
ten  o’clock  at  night,  we  bivouacked,  in  the  darkness 
and  sand,  by  the  wagons  in  the  road  — having 
made  but  three  miles  from  camp. 

“ Camp  near  San  Juan , July  17.  Started  this 
morning,  at  four  o’clock.  Road  still  heavy,  over 
short,  steep  hills  ; progress  slow  and  difficult. 
Reached  Santa  Fe,  eight  miles  from  Vera  Cruz, 
at  eight  o’clock,  A.  M.  Heat  exceedingly  oppres- 
sive. Remained  here  till  four,  P.  M.  About 
twelve  o’clock,  two  muleteers  came  to  our  bivouac 
in  great  agitation,  to  announce  that  five  hundred 


franklin  pierce. 


75 


guerillas  were  on  the  Jalapa  road,  not  five  hundred 
yards  distant,  advancing  rapidly.  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Watson,  with  the  Marine  Corps,  is,  by 
order,  immediately  under  arms,  and  Major  Gavet, 
with  two  pieces  of  artillery,  in  position  to  keep 
the  road.  No  guerilla  force  approaches  ; and  it  is 
doubtful  whether  the  muleteers,  looking  through 
the  medium  of  terror,  were  not  entirely  mistaken. 
Still,  it  was  our  first  alarm,  and  useful,  as  stimu- 
lating to  vigilance  and  constant  preparation  for  an 
attack. 

“ Resumed  the  march  at  four  P.  M.,  and  reached 
San  Juan  about  nine  o’clock  in  the  evening,  in  a 
drenching  rain.  The  road  from  SjSanta  Fe  to  this 
place  is  level  and  firm  ; no  water,  until  the  first 
branch  of  the  San  Juan  is  reached.  The  gueril- 
las had  attempted  to  destroy  the  bridge  over  the 
stream  ; but  Colonel  Ransom’s  advance  was  upon 
them  before  the  work  of  destruction  was  complete, 
and  New  England  strength  and  ingenuity  readily 
repaired  damages.  The  rain  continued  to  pour, 
throughout  that  night,  the  next  day,  and  the  night 
following.  The  encampment  being  upon  low, 
muddy  ground,  along  the  margin  of  the  stream, 
officers  and  men  were  compelled  to  find  their  only 
repose,  literally,  in  the  mud  and  water ; and  I re- 
solved to  move,  notwithstanding  the  heavy  rain, 
which  continued  to  pour  until  the  evening  of  the 
19th. 

“ Telema  Nueva,  July  20.  My  brigade,  with  the 


76 


LIFE  OF 


exception  of  Lieutenant  Colonel  Bonham’s  com- 
mand, left  Camp  Pierce,  (a  name  given  it  before  my 
arrival,  by  Colonel  Ransom,)  at  San  Juan,  yesterday 
evening,  and  marched  to  this  place,  twenty-four 
miles  from  Vera  Cruz.  Several  escopettes  were 
discharged  upon  the  detachment  of  dragoons,  at  the 
head  of  the  column.  These  shots  came  from  an  em- 
inence on  the  left  of  the  road,  a direct  line  to  which 
was  impracticable  for  cavalry.  Lieutenant  Deven, 
in  command  of  the  advanced  detachment,  dashed 
rapidly  up  the  hill,  along  the  road,  to  reconnoitre 
the  -position  of  the  main  body  of  the  enemy,  which, 
it  was  supposed,  might  be  posted  behind  the  emi- 
nence. Captain  Ridgeley,  of  the  Fourth  Artillery, 
threw  a few  round  shot  in  the  direction  from  which 
the  fire  came  ; and  in  the  mean  time,  I had  de- 
spatched Captain  Bodfish,  of  the  Ninth  Infantry, 
with  the  grenadiers  and  Company  F.,  to  take  the 
enemy  in  flank.  The  duty  was  promptly  and 
handsomely  performed ; but  the  enemy  had  fled 
before  Captain  B.  had  arrived  within  musket  shot 
of  his  position. 

“ The  march  was  continued  about  a mile,  when 
mounted  Mexicans  could  be  discerned  at  distant 
points,  evidently  reconnoitring.  This  being  the 
place  where  Colonel  McIntosh’s  train  had  been 
attacked  and  sustained  so  much  damage,  I made 
dispositions  for  any  such  contingency.  I detached 
Captain  Larkin  Smith,  of  the  Eighth  Infantry, 
with  three  companies  of  infantry  and  a party  of 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


77 


dragoons,  by  a path  on  the  left  of  the  main  road, 
that  debouched  from  an  old  Spanish  fort,  whence  an 
attack  was  anticipated.  A detachment  of  dragoons 
under  Lieutenant  Deven,  Colonel  Ransom  with 
the  Ninth  Infantry,  and  Captain  Ridgeley  with 
three  pieces  of  his  battery,  marched  on  the  main 
road.  Captain  Smith,  having  traversed  the  route 
upon  which  he  was  directed,  again  intersected  the 
main  road,  near  the  fort  above  referred  to,  a little 
hi  advance  of  the  head  of  our  column. 

“ In  this  position,  as  soon  as  Captain  Smith’s 
detachment  had  well  extended  upon  the  road,  the 
enemy  opened  a brisk  fire.  They  were  concealed 
and  strongly  posted  in  the  chapperal,  on  both  sides 
of  the  road — the  greater  number  on  the  right. 
The  fire  was  promptly  returned,  and  sustained  on 
both  sides  for  some  minutes,  when  Captain  Ridge- 
ley unlimbered  one  of  his  pieces,  and  threw  a few 
canister  shot  among  them.  This  immediately 
silenced  the  enemy’s  fire,  which  had  been  nearly 
done  by  Captain  Smith,  before  the  artillery  came 
up.  Captain  Bodfish,  with  three  companies  of  the 
Ninth  Infantry,  was  sent  to  attack  the  enemy  in 
flank ; but  his  flight  was  too  precipitous  for  this 
detachment  to  come  up  with  his  main  body. 

<!  I could  not  ascertain  the  enemy’s  loss.  The 
Mexican  paper  at  Jalapa  stated  it  at  forty ; which, 
I think,  was  an  exaggeration.  Our  own  loss  was 
six  wounded,  and  seven  horses  shot. 

“ I witnessed  with  pleasure  the  conduct  of  that 

7* 


78 


LIFE  OF 


part  of  my  command  immediately  engaged,  on 
this  occasion.  The  first  fire  of  the  enemy  indi- 
cated a pretty  formidable  force,  the  precise  strength 
of  which  could  not  be  ascertained,  as  they  were 
completely  covered  by  the  chapperal.  It  was  the 
first  time,  on  the  march,  that  any  portion  of  my 
command  had  been  fairly  under  fire.  I was  at  the 
head  of  the  column,  on  the  main  road,  and,  wit- 
nessing the  whole  scene,  saw  nothing  but  coolness 
and  courage  on  the  part  of  both  officers  and  men. 

“ Puente  Nacionale,  July  21.  The  brigade  re- 
sumed its  march  yesterday,  at  three  o’clock,  and 
reached  Paso  de  Orejas,  three  miles  distant,  where 
we  encamped  for  the  night.  The  march  was  un- 
obstructed by  the  enemy  ; and  our  advanced  troops 
reached  the  place  last  named  at  an  early  hour. 
The  rear,  however,  in  consequence  of  our  immense 
train,  did  not  arrive  till  after  dark.  As  it  descended 
towards  the  camp,  it  was  approached  by  gueril- 
las ; but  they  were  kept  at  bay  by  a few  discharges 
from  a six  pounder,  left  with  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Watson,  in  the  rear.  These  parties  had  been  seen 
during  the  day,  on  distant  and  elevated  points, 
reconnoitring  our  line.  The  road,  on  this  part  of 
the  march,  is  high  and  dry  ; no  water  except  in 
small  ponds  or  pools.  Paso  de  Orejas  is  on  the 
west  side  of  a rapid  and  beautiful  stream,  spanned 
by  a substantial  and  expensive  bridge  ; and,  judg- 
ing from  the  spacious  buildings,  it  has  evidently 
been  a place  of  considerable  business. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


79 


“We  left  Paso  de  Orejas  at  four  o’clock  in  the 
morning,  and  pursued  our  course  uninterruptedly, 
until  we  reached  Puente  Nacionale.  Anticipating, 
from  rumors  which  had  reached  us  upon  the  road, 
an  attack  at  this  place,  and  having  no  map  of  its 
defences,  natural  or  artificial,  I halted  the  entire 
command  on  the  top  of  the  long  hill,  which  de- 
scends to  the  fork  of  the  Antigua  River.  With  a 
detail  of  two  companies  of  the  Twelfth  Infantry, 
commanded  by  Captains  Wood  and  Danvers,  I 
proceeded  in  person,  two  or  three  hundred  yards, 
to  an  elevation  on  the  right  of  the  road,  from  which, 
with  my  glass,  I could  command  a view  of  the 
bridge,  the  village,  and  the  enemy’s  positions. 
There  were  a few  lancers  in  the  village,  riding 
rapidly  from  one  position  to  another,  flourishing  a 
red  flag,  and  occasionally,  as  if  in  defiance,  coming 
up  to  the  barricade  which  they  had  thrown  across 
the  bridge.  The  main  body  of  the  enemy,  how- 
ever, was  posted  behind  a temporary  breastwork, 
on  a bluff,  a hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  command- 
ing the  whole  bridge,  and  overhanging,  as  it  were, 
the  eastern  arch.  Their  position  could  not  be 
turned,  as  the  heights  continue  precipitous  from 
the  water’s  edge,  for  a long  distance  below. 

“ The  tongue  of  land,  dividing  the  fork  referred 
to  above  from  the  main  stream  of  the  Rio  del  An- 
tigua, rises  to  an  immense  height  on  the  left ; and 
on  this  eminence  is  a fortification,  which,  from  the 
road,  has  the  appearance  of  great  strength.  After 


80 


LIFE  OF 


crossing  the  bridge,  the  road' tarns  suddenly  to  the 
left.  Having  satisfied  myself  that  this  fort,  on 
the  left,  was  not  occupied,  I sent  forward  Captain 
Dobbins  with  his  company,  together  with  Company 
G,  Fourth  Infantry,  and  Company  I,  Voltigeurs, 
under  Captain  Archer,  along  the  brow  of  the  hill 
to  the  bank  of  the  Antigua,  opposite  the  village, 
with  instructions,  if  possible,  to  cross  the  river 
above. 

“ The  passage  above,  like  that  below,  being 
found  impracticable,  I rode  forward,  with  my  aid- 
de-camp,  Lieutenant  Thom,  to  reconnoitre  the 
enemy’s  works  more  closely,  and  to  find  on  the 
left,  if  possible,  a position  for  artillery.  In  this  I 
was  to  a certain  extent  successful,  and  immediate- 
ly ordered  forward  three  pieces,  two  under  the  com- 
mand of  Captain  Ridgeley,  and  one  under  Lieu- 
tenant Getty,  of  the  Fourth  Artillery.  These  were 
stationed  on  a piece  of  table  land,  perhaps  an  acre 
in  extent,  four  or  five  rods  from  the  west  end  of 
the  main  bridge,  and  thirty  feet  above  it.  The 
pieces  swept  the  bridge,  and  dispersed  the  lancers 
from  the  village.  Shots  were  also  thrown  at  the 
heights,  but,  in  consequence  of  the  great  elevation 
of  the  bluff’  where  the  enemy’s  main  body  were 
posted,  without  any  other  effect  than  to  distract 
his  fire  from  the  advance,  under  Colonel  Bonham, 
then  awaiting  my  orders  to  cross.  This  portion  of 
Colonel  Bonham’s  command  consisted  of  Compa- 
ny B,  Twelfth  Infantry,  under  Captain  Holden,  a 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


81 


detachment  of  the  same  regiment  under  Lieutenant 
Giles,  two  companies  of  Pennsylvania  volunteers 
under  Captains  Caldwell  and  Taylor,  Company  C, 
A oltigeurs,  under  Lieutenant  Forsyth,  and  Com- 
pany F,  Eleventh  Infantry,  commanded  by  Lieu- 
tenant Hedges. 

“ Under  the  discharge  of  the  artillery  of  the  ene- 
my’s works,  the  command  was  given  to  Colonel 
Bonham  to  advance.  It  was  admirably  executed. 
Captain  Holden’s  company,  leading,  rushed  over 
the  bridge  with  a shout ; the  captain,  some  paces 
in  advance,  leaped  the  barricade  of  brush  and  tim- 
ber, his  men  following  with  great  enthusiasm. 
Having  crossed  the  bridge,  he  threw  his  company, 
under  the  cover  of  buildings,  immediately  beneath 
the  bluff,  and  taking  a narrow,  steep  path  to  the 
right,  was  in  a few  moments  upon  the  summit, 
where  the  whole  brigade  greeted  him  with  hearty 
cheers.  The  remainder  of  the  command  followed 
rapidly,  and  in  good  order.  In  the  mean  time,  with 
a view  to  cut  off'  the  retreat  of  the  foe,  Captain 
Dupreau,  of  the  Third  Dragoons,  had  leaped  the 
barricade,  dashed  through  the  village,  and,  almost 
simultaneously  with  Captain  Holden,  planted  the 
colors  of  his  company  upon  the  breastwork,  from 
which  the  plunging  fire  had  so  recently  ceased. 
The  guerillas  and  lancers  could  hardly  have 
waited,  after  the  first  shout  of  Holden’s  company, 
to  see  the  effect  of  their  own  fire ; for,  before  our 
first  detachment  reached  their  works,  they  were  in 

F 


82 


LIFE  OF 


full  flight,  beyond  pursuit,  in  the  dense  chapperal 
of  the  mountains  in  their  rear. 

“ Colonel  Bonham’s  horse  was  shot  near  me,  and 
I received  an  escopette  ball  through  the  rim  of  my 
hat,  but  without  other  damage  than  leaving  my 
head,  for  a short  time,  without  protection  from  the 
sun.  The  balls  spattered  like  hailstones  around 
us,  at  the  moment  the  column  advanced ; and  it 
seems  truly  wonderful  that  so  few  took  effect.  A 
large  portion  of  them  passed  over  our  heads,  and 
struck  between  the  rear  of  Colonel  Bonham’s  com- 
mand and  the  main  body  of  the  brigade,  two  or 
three  hundred  yards  behind,  with  the  train ; thus 
verifying  what  has  so  often  been  said  by  our  gal- 
lant fellows,  within  the  last  forty  days,  that  the 
nearer  you  get  to  these  people  in  fight,  the  safer. 

“ The  encampment  was  made  in  the  village,  for 
the  night,  thirty  miles  from  Vera  Cruz.  Here 
General  Santa  Anna  has  a spacious  and  magnifi- 
cent hacienda,  in  which  I established  my  head- 
quarters. 

“ July  22.  I left  the  princely  hacienda  of  Santa 
Anna,  at  the  Natural  Bridge,  this  morning  at  four 
o’clock.  The  moment  our  picket  guards  wjere  with- 
drawn, the  enemy  appeared  on  all  the  surrounding 
heights,  but  at  distances  too  respectful  to  provoke 
any  particular  notice.  I proceeded  on  the  march, 
without  molestation,  until  we  commenced  the  de- 
scent of  the  Plan  del  Rio,  where  Captain  Du- 
preau’s  company  of  cavalry,  a few  hundred  yards 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


83 


in  front  of  the  column,  was  fired  upon  from  the 
chapperal,  and  three  horses  wounded.  Lieutenant 
Colonel  Hebert,  being  next  to  the  dragoons,  threw 
out  a company  of  skirmishers  on  either  side,  and, 
with  the  remainder,  continued  the  march  on  the 
main  road.  Nothing  more,  however,  was  seen  or 
heard  of  the  enemy. 

“ An  old  Spanish  fort  stands  on  a high  eminence 
at  the  right  of  the  road,  commanding  it  in  all  di- 
rections, and  overlooking  the  bridge.  A bridge, 
about  four  hundred  yard*  west  of  the  main  stream, 
had  been  barricaded,  evidently  with  the  intention 
of  defending  it.  But  neither  the  fort  nor  the  po- 
sition beyond  the  barricade  was  occupied ; the 
enemy,  as  we  soon  learned,  having  hit  upon  another 
expedient  for  checking  our  advance,  which  they 
evidently  believed  must  cause  several  weeks’  deten- 
tion, and  probably  drive  the  command  back  upon 
the  coast. 

“ Removing  the  barricade  at  the  small  bridge, 
and  proceeding  about  four  hundred  yards,  we  came 
to  the  Plan  del  Rio,  over  which  there  had  been  a 
bridge  similar  to  Puente  Nacionale.  It  was  a mag- 
nificent structure  of  art,  combining  great  strength 
and  beauty,  a work  of  the  old  Spaniards,  so  many 
of  which  are  found  upon  this  great  avenue  from 
the  coast,  fitted  to  awaken  the  admiration  and 
wonder  of  the  traveller.  The  fact  that  the  main 
arch,  a span  of  about  sixty  feet,  had  been  blown 
up,  first  burst  upon  me  as  I stood  upon  the  brink 


84 


LIFE  OF 


of  the  chasm,  with  a perpendicular  descent  of 
nearly  a hundred  feet  to  the  bed  of  a rapid  stream, 
much  swollen  by  the  recent  rains.  As  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach,  above  and  below,  the  banks  on 
the  west  side,  of  vast  height,  descended  precipi- 
tously, aimost  in  a perpendicular  line,  to  the  water’s 
edge. 

“This  sudden'- and  unexpected  barrier,  I need 
not  say,  was  somewhat  withering  to  the  confidence 
with  which  I had  been. animated.  The  news  hav- 
ing extended  back  along  the  line,  my  officers  soon 
crowded  around  me  ; and  the  deep  silence  that 
ensued  was  more  significant  than  any  thing  which 
could  have  been  spoken.  After  a few  moments’ 
pause,  this  silence  was  broken  by  many  short,  epi- 
grammatical  remarks,  and  more  questions.  ‘ We 
have  it  before  us  now ! ’ said  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Hebert.  ‘ The  destruction  of  this  magnificent  and 
expensive  work  of  a past  generation  could  not 
have  been  ordered,  but  upon  a deliberate  and  firm 
purpose  of  stern  resistance.’  ‘ This  people  have 
destroyed,’  said  another,  ‘ what  they  never  will  re- 
build.’ ‘ What  is  to  be  done  with  this  train  ? ’ 
‘ What  do  you  purpose  now,  general  ? ’ ‘ To  have 
it  closed  up,’  I replied,  ‘ as  compactly  as  possible  to- 
night, and  to  cross  to-morrow  with  every  wagon ! ’ 
But,  I confess,  there  was  no  very  distinct  idea,  in 
my  own  mind,  how  the  thing  was  to  be  accom- 
plished. 

“ I ought  to  have  mentioned  that  the  Ninth 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


85 


Infantry,  under  the  gallant  Colonel  Ransom,  which 
was  that  day  in  advance,  on  discovering  that  the 
bridge  had  been  blown  up,  and  supposing  the  ene- 
my to  be  in  force  on  the  other  side,  immediately 
descended  the  steep  banks,  by  the  aid  of  trees  and 
other  supports,  and  forded  the  river.  They  then 
took  possession  of  a church  on  the  other  side. 

“ A long  hill  descends  from  the  west  towards 
this  river;  the  road  is  narrow,  and  there  is  no 
ground  for  an  encampment  or  the  packing  of  wag- 
ons. The  wagons,  therefore,  having  been  closed 
up,  were  of  necessity  left  in  the  wood,  making  a 
line  of  more  than  a mile  and  a half  in  length. 
Thus  disposed,  every  precaution  was  taken  for  the 
protection  of  the  train,  and  the  brigade  was  left  to 
bivouac. 

“ The  growth,  for  miles  around,  was  low  and 
scrubby,  affording  no  timber  to  reconstruct  the 
arch  ; and  it  was  perfectly  apparent  that  no  passage 
could  be  effected  at  the  north.  Lieutenant  Thom, 
and  two  or  three  scientific  officers  with  him,  had 
been  occupied  from  the  time  of  our  arrival  in  mak- 
ing a careful  reeonnoissance  down  the  banks  of 
the  river,  for  two  or  three  miles  below.  At  dusk, 
they  reported  that  the  difficulties  in  that  direction 
did  not  diminish,  but  that  a road  might  probably 
be  constructed  down  the  bank,  some  hundred  yards 
south  of  the  bridge.  Weary,  and  not  in  the  most 
buoyant  spirits,  we  all  sunk  to  repose. 

“Early  the  next  morning,  I sent  for  Captain 


86 


LIFE  OF 


Bodfish,  of  the  Ninth  Infantry,  an  officer  of  high 
intelligence  and  force  of  character.  He  had  been 
engaged  for  many  years  in  the  lumber  business, 
and  accustomed  to  the  construction  of  roads  in  the 
wild  and  mountainous  districts  of  Maine,  and  was 
withal  a man  not  lightly  to  be  checked  by  slight 
obstacles  in  the  accomplishment  of  an  enterprise. 
It  occurred  to  me,  therefore,  that  he  was  the  very 
man  whose  services  should,  on  this  occasion,  be 
put  in  requisition. 

“ Being  informed  of  the  object  for  which  he  had 
been  called,  he  retired,  and,  returning  in  half  an 
hour,  said  that  he  had  examined  the  ground,  and 
that  the  construction  of  a road,  over  which  the  train 
might  safely  pass,  was  practicable.  ‘ What  length 
of  time,’  he  was  asked,  ‘will  necessarily  be  occupied 
in  the  completion  of  the  work  ? ’ ‘ That,’  said  he, 

‘ will  depend  upon  the  number  of  men  employed. 
If  you  will  give  me  five  hundred  men,  I will  fur- 
nish you  a road  over  which  the  train  can  pass 
safely  in  four  hours.’  The  detail  was  immediately 
furnished  ; and,  at  the  end  of  three  hours,  this  en- 
ergetic and  most  deserving  officer  reported  to  me 
that  the  road  was  ready  for  the  wagons.  Fortune 
favored  us  in  more  respects  than  one.  The  water 
in  the  river,  which,  in  the  rainy  season,  is  a rapid 
and  unfordable  stream,  fell  one  and  a half  feet  from 
the  time  of  our  arrival  to  the  hour  of  the  comple- 
tion of  the  work.  ‘ Bodfish’s  road  ’ (unless  this 
nation  shall  be  regenerated)  will  be  the  road,  at 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


87 


that  place,  for  Mexican  diligences,  for  half  a cen- 
tury to  come. 

“ Without  removing  an  article  from  a single 
wagon,  the  entire  train  had  passed,  without  ac- 
cident, before  the  sun  went  down  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  23d.  Here,  on  the  east  side  of  Plan 
del  Rio,  where  there  are  barracks  and  many 
ranchos,  we  are  comfortably  quartered  for  the 
night.  The  troops  are  in  the  highest  spirits  ; and 
jokes  innumerable  are  passing  among  our  southern 
brethren  upon  the  absurdity  of  Mexicans  attempt- 
ing to  play  such  a trick  on  Yankees.  The  heat 
had  been  so  excessive  that  I intended  to  remain 
one  day  at  this  place,  for  the  refreshment  of  men 
and  animals  : but  all  are  anxious  to  proceed,  and 
we  move  in  the  morning.  Thus  the  destruction 
of  this  very  expensive  work,  instead  of  retarding 
my  progress  for  a single  hour,  has  added  fresh  con- 
fidence and  enthusiasm  to  the  command. 

“ Ence.ro.  July  24.  Plan  del  Rio  being  within 
four  miles  of  Cerro  Gordo,  and  being  apprehensive 
of  a plunging  fire  on  the  trains,  from  the  eminences, 
I despatched  Lieutenant  Colonel  Bonham  with  five 
hundred  picked  men,  at  twelve  o’clock,  last  night, 
to  take  possession  of  the  heights,  by  the  way  of 
Twiggs’s  route,  as  it  is  called.  An  officer,  in  my 
command,  was  at  the  battle  of  Cerro  Gordo,  and 
supposed  that  he  sufficiently  understood  the  locali- 
ties to  act  as  guide.  This  military  road  of  Twiggs 
turned  off  from  the  main  road,  four  or  five  miles 


88 


LIFE  OF 


from  Plan  del  Rio.  I went  forward  in  person,  with 
Captain  Dupreau’s  company  of  cavalry.  The  rain 
poured  in  torrents  ; and  the  darkness  was  such  that 
I could  not  see  Dupreau’s  white  horse,  while  riding 
by  his  side.  In  consequence  of  this  extreme  dark- 
ness, Captain  Scantland  was  unable  to  find  the 
route,  and  I returned  with  the  cavalry  to  camp. 
The  detachment  rested  upon  their  arms  till  morn- 
ing, when  the  duty  was  handsomely  performed, 
although  the  strongholds  were  found  unoccupied. 

“ When  our  train  left  Plan  del  Rio,  at  early 
dawn,  the  Mexicans  appeared  on  the  heights,  and 
discharged  a harmless  volley  upon  the  rear  guard. 
They  evidently  made  a mistake.  Not  having  cal- 
culated distances  with  their  usual  accuracy,  Colonel 
Ransom,  being  in  the  rear  with  a six  pounder,  un- 
der the  command  of  Lieutenant  Welsh,  threw  a 
few  canister  shot  among  them.  These  undoubt- 
edly took  effect,  as  they  scattered  in  all  directions, 
without  firing  another  gun.  We  reached  this 
place  at  about  two  o’clock,  where  is  another  mag- 
nificent hacienda,  owned  by  Santa  Anna.  There 
being  large  herds  of  cattle  around  us,  but  no  owner 
of  whom  to  purchase,  I have  sent  out  detachments 
to  supply  our  immediate  wants. 

“ Two  or  three  of  the  young  officers,  desiring  to 
participate  in  the  chase  of  the  cattle,  left  the  camp 
without  permission,  and,  in  the  excitement  of  the 
chase,  wandered  to  a considerable  distance.  One 
of  them  has  just  been  brought  in  with  a dangerous 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


89 


gun  shot  through  the  thigh  — a very  natural  result 
of  such  imprudence.  The  only  matter  of  surprise  is, 
that  they  were  not  all  killed  or  captured  by  the  bands 
of  guerillas,  who  are  known  to  hang  upon  our  rear 
by  day,  and  about  our  camp  by  night.  I am  sorry 
for  the  officer,  but  trust  the  admonition  may  be 
salutary.  We  have  here  a delightful  encampment, 
upon  a green  carpet  that  slopes  gently  to  a fine 
stream  of  clear,  pure  water.  Jalapa  is  only  eight 
miles  distant. 

“ .Camp  near  Jalapa , July  25.  We  left  the  en- 
campment at  Encero  at  seven  o’clock,  not  without 
regret,  so  pleasant  was  the  situation,  and  so  re- 
freshing the  pure  stream  that  rushed  sparkling  by 
us.  It  reminded  all  New  England  men  of  their 
homes.  Our  march  to  Jalapa,  which  we  reached 
at  noon,  was  uninterrupted.  The  main  road  to 
Puebla  passes  outside  of  the  city.  I rode  with 
twenty  dragoons  to  the  principal  fonda,  kept  by 
an  intelligent  Frenchman,  where  I dined,  and  re- 
mained two  or  three  hours,  until  the  train  and  rear 
of  the  command  had  passed.  In  the  hotel,  I met 
and  conversed,  through  an  interpreter,  with  many 
persons  in  the  garb  of  gentlemen.  Full  of  compli- 
ments and  professions  of  friendship,  they  quite 
stagger  a blunt  Yankee.  The  truth  is,  instead  of 
being  induced  to  take  up  my  quarters  on  account 
of  these  protestations,  I the  earlier  thought  it  time, 
with  my  true  friend  and  aid-de-camp,  Lieutenant 
Thom,  and  the  twenty  dragoons,  to  join  the  com- 
8* 


t 


90 


LIFE  OF 


mand.  I hardly  know  why,  amid  pleasant  conver- 
sation, this  feeling  came  over  me.  It  was  instinct, 
rather  than  any  legitimate  deduction  from  what  I 
either  saw  or  heard ; but,  in  this  case,  it  proved 
better  than  reason,  for,  returning  to  the  main  road, 
I found  the  extreme  rear  halted,  and  in  no  little 
excitement.  A colored  servant  of  Lieutenant 
Welsh,  having  been  sent  to  water  a horse,  not  six 
rods  from  the  road,  had  been  stabbed,  and  the  horse 
stolen.  I stopped  long  enough  to  ascertain  that  no 
trace  could  be  found  of  the  robbers,  and  then,  pro- 
ceeded to  camp,  two  and  a half  or  three  miles  dis- 
tant. 

“ The  encampment  is  by  a fine  stream,  which, 
drives  the  spindles  of  Don  Garcia,  a quarter  of  a 
mile  below  us.  This  factory  has  in  some  respects 
a New  England  aspect,  but  is  destitute  of  the  in- 
dications of  New  England  enterprise  and  thrift. 

“ No  trust  is  to  be  placed  in  this  people.  I have 
learned,  beyond  a doubt,  that  Jalapa  is  daily  filled 
with  guerillas,  and  that  many  of  these  bravos 
were  about  the  fonda,  while  we  were  there. 

“ Camp  near  Jalapa , July  27.  Several  soldiers, 
while  strolling  to  the  city  or  the  neighboring 
ranchos,  in  violation  of  general  orders,  have  either 
deserted,  been  killed,  or  taken  prisoners.  Mr.  N., 
a lawyer  resident  in  New  Orleans,  but  a native  of 
Maine,  having  business  in  the  interior  of  Mexico, 
was  permitted  to  accompany  my  command  from 
Vera  Cruz.  He  seems  to  have  been  enjoying  a 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


91 


stroll  in  the  streets  of  Jalapa,  when  he  was  seized 
by  the  guerillas,  who  are  evidently  in  disguise  in 
all  parts  of  the  city.  He  wrote  me  a note  after 
his  capture,  stating  that  he  had  been  offered  his 
liberty,  if  I would  send  to  the  Alcalde  of  Jalapa  a 
certificate  that  he  was  a private  citizen,  and  in  no 
way  connected  with  the  American  army.  This 
was,  of  course,  promptly  forwarded. 

“ The  guerillas,  I believe,  have  complete  pos- 
session, or  rather  control,  of  Jalapa.  The  citizens, 
who  dread  them  more  than  we  do,  and  who  suffer 
severely  from  them,  dare  not  inform  against  nor 
resist  them,  so  long  as  an  uncertainty  exists  with 
regard  to  protection  from  the  American  forces. 
They  stroll  about  the  city  in  disguise,  and,  when- 
ever an  opportunity  presents  itself,  they  kill  or  carry 
off  our  stragglers,  and  steal  and  rob  with  impunity. 

“ Camp  near  La  Hoy  a , July  29.  We  left  our 
camp  near  Jalapa  this  morning  at  seven  o’clock. 
The  sick  list,  instead  of  diminishing,  has  increased, 
and  now  includes  more  than  four  hundred  men. 
The  principal  cause  is  excessive  indulgence  in 
fruits,  which  it  was  found  impossible  to  keep  from 
the  troops.  We  are  now  upon  the  margin  of  a 
stream,  where  are  the  remains  of  fires  and  other 
relics  of  a former  encampment.  The  ground  is 
low  and  level.  The  rain  is  pouring  in  torrents, 
and  rushes  through  my  tent,  in  a channel  dug  by 
the  orderly,  like  a permanent,  living  brook. 

“ On  arriving  at  San  Miguel  el  Saldado,  I re- 


92 


LIFE  OF 


quiredthe  Alcalde  of  that  place,  and  another  Mexi- 
can, to  go  forward  with  us  as  guides  to  the  passes 
that  turn  the  strong  positions  commanding  the 
roads  over  which  we  shall  pass  to-morrow. 

“ Camp  near  the  Castle  of  Perote,  July  30.  The 
whole  command  was  under  arms  at  dawn.  Two 
regiments  (the  Ninth  Infantry  under  Colonel  Ran- 
som, and  detachments  from  various  regiments 
under  Lieutenant  Colonel  Bonham)  were  ordered 
to  take  the  paths  leading  over  the  heights  com- 
manding the  road,  while  the  main  body,  with  the 
train,  should  pass  this  strong  defile.  During  the 
night,  the  Alcalde  had  furnished  two  guides,  better 
acquainted  with  the  paths  than  himself.  One  ac- 
companied each  of  the  flanking  columns.  This 
service,  performed  by  Colonel  Ransom  and  Lieu- 
tenant Colonel  Bonham,  was  exceedingly  arduous, 
although  they  occupied  the  heights  without  resist- 
ance. The  train  passed  this  gorge  of  the  moun- 
tains, which  furnishes  the  strongest  natural  de- 
fences, without  molestation ; the  two  flanking 
regiments  making  their  appearance,  every  few 
moments,  in  the  openings,  and  on  the  peaks  of  the 
surrounding  summits. 

“ At  Las  Vegas,  about  four  miles  from  Perote, 
we  were  met  by  Colonel  Wyncoop,  of  the  Pennsyl- 
vania volunteers,  now  in  command  of  the  castle, 
with  Captain  Walker’s  elegant  company  of  mount- 
ed riflemen.  Captain  Walker  is  the  same  who 
gained  [earned  is  the  better  word,  for  officers  some- 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


93 


times  gain  what  they  do  not  merit)  such  an  envi- 
able reputation  on  the  Rio  Grande.  His  company 
is  in  all  respects  worthy  of  their  efficient,  gentle- 
manly, modest,  and  daring  commander. 

“ I reached  the  castle  before  dark,  and  Colonel 
Wyncoop  kindly  tendered  me  his  quarters;  but  I 
adhered  to  a rule  from  which  I have  never  deviated 
on  the  march  — to  see  the  rear  of  the  command 
safely  in  camp,  and  where  they  pitched  their  tents 
to  pitch  my  own.  The  rear  guard,  in  consequence 
of  the  broken  condition  of  the  road,  did  not  arrive 
until  nine  o’clock ; when  our  tents  were  pitched  in 
darkness,  and  in  the  sand,  which  surrounds  the 
castle  on  all  sides. 

“ Camp  under  ' the  Walls  of  the  Castle  of  Perote, 
Avgust  1.  We  make  a halt  here  of  two  or  three 
days,  to  repair  damages,  procure  supplies,  and  give 
rest  to  the  troops.  I have  sent  two  hundred  sick 
to  the  hospital  in  the  castle,  and  received  about  the 
same  number  of  convalescents,  left  by  trains  that 
have  preceded  me. 

“ While  at  the  artillery  quarters,  to-day,  in  the 
village,  Captain  Ruff'  arrived,  with  his  company  of 
cavalry  and  the  company  of  native  spies,  as  they 
are  called,  now  in  our  service,  and  commanded  by 
the  celebrated  robber  Domingues.  Captain  Ruff 
was  sent  forward  by  General  Persifer  F.  Smith. 
The  latter,  in  consequence  of  the  rumors  that  had 
reached  the  commander-in-chief,  in  relation  to  the 
attacks  made  upon  my  command,  had  been  sent 


94 


LIFE  OF 


down  as  far  as  Ojo  del  Agua,  with  a view  to  ascer- 
tain my  whereabouts  and  condition,  and  to  afford 
support,  if  necessary.” 

General  Pierce’s  journal  here  terminates.  In  its 
clear  and  simple  narrative,  the  reader  cannot  fail 
to  see  — although  it  was  written  with  no  purpose 
of  displaying  them  — the  native  qualities  of  a born 
soldier,  together  with  the  sagacity  of  an  experi- 
enced one.  He  had  proved  himself,  moreover, 
physically  apt  for  war,  by  his  easy  endurance  of 
the  fatigues  of  the  march ; every  step  of  which  (as 
was  the  case  with  few  other  officers)  was  performed 
either  on  horseback  or  on  foot.  Nature,  indeed, 
has  endowed  him  with  a rare  elasticity  both  of 
mind  and  body ; he  springs  up  from  pressure  like 
a well-tempered  sword.  After  the  severest  toil,  a 
single  night’s  rest  does  as  much  for  him,  in  the 
way  of  refreshment,  as  a week  could  do  for  most 
other  men. 

His  conduct  on  this  adventurous  march  received 
the  high  encomiums  of  military  men,  and  was 
honored  with  the  commendation  of  the  great 
soldier  who  is  now  his  rival  in  the  presidential 
contest.  He  reached  the  main  army  at  Puebla, 
on  the  7th  of  August,  with  twenty-four  hundred 
men,  in  fine  order,  and  without  the  loss  of  a sin- 
gle wagon. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


95 


CHAPTER  Y. 

HIS  SERVICES  IN  THE  VALLEY  OF  MEXICO. 

General  Scott,  who  was  at  Puebla  with  the 
main  army,  awaiting  this  reenforcement,  began  his 
march  towards  the  city  of  Mexico  on  the  day  after 
General  Pierce’s  arrival.  The  battle  of  Contreras 
was  fought  on  the  19th  of  August. 

The  enemy’s  force  consisted  of  about  seven 
thousand  men,  posted  in  a strongly-intrenched 
camp,  under  General  Valencia,  one  of  the  bravest 
and  ablest  of  the  Mexican  commanders.  The  ob- 
ject of  the  commanding  general  appears  to  have 
been  to  cut  off  the  communications  of  these  de- 
tached troops  with  Santa  Anna’s  main  army,  and 
thus  to  have  them  entirely  at  his  mercy.  For  this 
purpose,  a portion  of  the  American  forces  were 
ordered  to  move  against  Valencia’s  left  flank,  and, 
by  occupying  strong  positions  in  the  villages  and 
on  the  roads  towards  the  city,  to  prevent  reenforce- 
ments from  reaching  him.  In  the  mean  time,  to 
draw  the  enemy’s  attention  from  this  movement,  a 
vigorous  onset  was  made  upon  his  front ; and  as 
the  operations  upon  his  flank  were  not  immediately 
and  fully  carried  out  according  to  the  plan,  this 
front  demonstration  assumed  the  character  of  a 


96 


LIFE  OF 


fierce  and  desperate  attack,  upon  which  the  for* 
tunes  of  the  day  much  depended.  General  Pierce’s 
brigade  formed  a part  of  the  force  engaged  in  this 
latter  movement,  in  which  four  thousand  newly- 
recruited  men,  unable  to  bring  their  artillery  to 
bear,  contended  against  seven  thousand  disciplined 
soldiers,  protected  by  intrenchments,  and  shower- 
ing round  shot  and  shells  against  the  assailing 
troops. 

The  ground  in  front  was  of  the  rudest  and 
roughest  character.  The  troops  made  their  way 
with  difficulty  over  a broken  tract,  called  the  Pe- 
dregal,  bristling  with  sharp  points  of  rocks,  and 
which  is  represented  as  having  been  the  crater  of 
a now  exhausted  and  extinct  volcano.  The  enemy 
had  thrown  out  skirmishers,  who  were  posted  in 
great  force  among  the  crevices  and  inequalities  of 
this  broken  ground,  and  vigorously  resisted  the 
American  advance  ; while  the  artillery  of  the  in- 
trenched camp  played  upon  our  troops,  and  shat- 
tered the  very  rocks  over  which  they  were  to  pass. 

General  Pierce’s  immediate  command  had  never 
before  been  under  such  a fire  of  artillery.  The 
enemy’s  range  was  a little  too  high,  or  the  havoc 
in  our  ranks  must  have  been  dreadful.  In  the 
midst  of  this  fire,  General  Pierce,  being  the  only 
officer  mounted  in  the  brigade,  leaped  his  horse 
upon  an  abrupt  eminence,  and  addressed  the  colo- 
nels and  captains  of  the  regiments,  as  they  passed, 
in  a few  stirring  words  — reminding  them  of  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


97 


honor  of  their  country,  of  the  victory  their  steady 
valor  would  contribute  to  achieve.  Pressing  for- 
ward to  the  head  of  the  column,  he  had  nearly 
reached  the  practicable  ground  that  lay  beyond, 
when  his  horse  slipped  among  the  rocks,  thrust  his 
foot  into  a crevice,  and  fell,  breaking  his  own  leg, 
and  crushing  his  rider  heavily  beneath  him. 

Pierce’s  mounted  orderly  soon  came  to  his  as- 
sistance. The  general  was  stunned,  and  almost 
insensible.  When  partially  recovered,  he  found 
himself  suffering  from  severe  bruises,  and  especially 
from  a sprain  of  the  left  knee,  which  was  under- 
most when  the  horse  came  down.  The  orderly 
assisted  him  to  reach  the  shelter  of  a projecting 
rock ; and  as  they  made  their  way  thither,  a shell 
fell  close  beside  them,  and  exploded,  covering  them 
with  earth.  “ That  was  a lucky  miss,”  said  Pierce 
calmly.  Leaving  him  in  such  shelter  as  the  rock 
afforded,  the  orderly  went  in  search  of  aid,  and  was 
fortunate  to  meet  with  Dr.  Ritchie,  of  Virginia, 
who  was  attached  to  Pierce’s  brigade,  and  was 
following  in  close  proximity  to  the  advancing  col- 
umn. The  doctor  administered  to  him  as  well  as 
the  circumstances  would  admit.  Immediately  on 
recovering  his  full  consciousness,  General  Pierce 
had  become  anxious  to  rejoin  his  troops ; and  now, 
in  opposition  to  Dr.  Ritchie’s  advice  and  remon- 
strances, he  determined  to  proceed  to  the  front. 

With  pain  and  difficulty,  and  leaning  on  his 
orderly’s  arm,  he  reached  the  battery  commanded 
9 G 


98 


LIFE  OF 


by  Captain  McGruder,  where  he  found  the  horse 
of  Lieutenant  Johnson,  who  had  just  before  re- 
ceived a mortal  wound.  In  compliance  with  his 
wishes,  he  was  assisted  into  the  saddle ; and,  in 
answer  to  a remark  that  he  would  be  unable  to 
keep  his  seat,  “ Then,”  said  the  general,  “ you  must 
tie  me  on.”  Whether  this  precaution  was  actually 
taken  is  a point  on  which  authorities  differ ; but  at 
all  events,  with  injuries  so  severe  as  would  have 
sent  almost  any  other  man  to  the  hospital,  he  rode 
forward  into  the  battle. 

The  contest  was  kept  up  until  nightfall,  without 
forcing  Valencia’s  intrenchment.  General  Pierce 
remained  in  the  saddle  until  eleven  o’clock  at  night. 
Finding  himself,  at  nine  o’clock,  the  senior  officer 
in  the  field,  he,  in  that  capacity,  withdrew  the  troops 
from  their  advanced  position,  and  concentrated 
them  at  the  point  where  they  were  to  pass  the 
night.  At  eleven,  beneath  a torrent  of  rain,  destitute 
of  a tent  or  other  protection,  and  without  food  or  re- 
freshment, he  lay  down  on  an  ammunition  wagon, 
but  was  prevented  by  the  pain  of  his  injuries,  espe- 
cially that  of  his  wounded  knee,  from  finding  any 
repose.  At  one  o’clock  came  orders  from  General 
Scott  to  put  the  brigade  into  a new  position,  in 
front  of  the  enemy’s  works,  preparatory  to  taking 
part  in  the  contemplated  operations  of  the  next 
morning.  During  the  night,  the  troops  appointed 
for  that  service,  under  Riley,  Shields,  Smith,  and 
CadwaNader,  had  occupied  the  villages  and  roads 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


99 


between  Valencia’s  position  and  the  city  ; so  that, 
with  daylight,  the  commanding  general’s  scheme 
of  the  battle  was  ready  to  be  carried  out,  as  it  had 
originally  existed  in  his  mind. 

At  daylight,  accordingly,  Valencia’s  intrenched 
camp  was  assaulted.  General  Pierce  was  soon  in 
the  saddle,  at  the  head  of  his  brigade,  which  retained 
its  position  in  front,  thus  serving  to  attract  the  en- 
emy’s attention,  and  divert  him  from  the  true  point 
of  attack.  The  camp  was  stormed  in  the  rear  by 
the  American  troops,  led  on  by  Riley,  Cadwallader, 
and  Dimmick ; and  in  the  short  space  of  seventeen 
minutes  it  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  assail- 
ants, together  with  a multitude  of  prisoners.  The 
remnant  of  the  routed  enemy  fled  towards  Churu- 
busco.  As  Pierce  led  his  brigade  in  pursuit,  cross- 
ing the  battle  field,  and  passing  through  the  works 
that  had  just  been  stormed,  he  found  the  road  and 
adjacent  fields  every  where  strewn  with  the  dead 
and  dying.  The  pursuit  was  continued  until  one 
o’clock,  when  the  foremost  of  the  Americans  ar- 
rived in  front  of  the  strong  Mexican  positions  at 
Churubusco  and  San  Antonio,  where  Santa  Anna’s 
army  had  been  compelled  to  make  a stand,  and 
where  the  great  conflict  of  the  day  commenced. 

General  Santa  Anna  entertained  the  design  of 
withdrawing  his  forces  towards  the  city.  In  order 
to  intercept  this  movement,  Pierce’s  brigade,  with 
other  troops,  was  ordered  to  pursue  a route  by 
which  the  enemy  could  be  attacked  in  the  rear. 


100 


LIFE  OF 


Colonel  Noah  E.  Smith  (a  patriotic  American,  long 
resident  in  Mexico,  whose  local  and  topographi- 
cal knowledge  proved  eminently  serviceable)  had 
offered  to  point  out  the  road,  and  was  sent  to 
summon  General  Pierce  to  the  presence  of  the 
commander-in-chief.  When  he  met  Pierce,  near 
Coyacan,  at  the  head  of  his  brigade,  the  heavy 
fire  of  the  batteries  had  commenced.  “ He  was 
exceedingly  thin,”  writes  Colonel  Smith,  “worn 
down  by  the  fatigue  and  pain  of  the  day  and  night 
before,  and  then  evidently  suffering  severely.  Still, 
there  was  a glow  in  his  eye,  as  the  cannon  boomed, 
that  showed  within  him  a spirit  ready  for  the  con- 
flict.” He  rode  up  to  General  Scott,  who  was  at 
this  time  sitting  on  horseback  beneath  a tree,  near 
the  church  of  Coyacan,  issuing  orders  to  different 
individuals  of  his  staff.  Our  account  of  this  inter- 
view is  chiefly  taken  from  the  narrative  of  Colonel 
Smith,  corroborated  by  other  testimony. 

The  commander-in-chief  had  already  heard  of 
the  accident  that  befell  Pierce  the  day  before  ; and 
as  the  latter  approached,  General  Scott  could  not 
but  notice  the  marks  of  pain  and  physical  exhaus- 
tion, against  which  only  the  sturdiest  constancy  of 
will  could  have  enabled  him  to  bear  up.  “ Pierce, 
my  dear  fellow,”  said  he,  — and  that  epithet  of 
familiar  kindness  and  friendship,  upon  the  battle 
field,  was  the  highest  of  military  commendation 
from  such  a man,  — “ you  are  badly  injured  ; you 
are  not  fit  to  be  in  your  saddle.”  “ Yes,  general, 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


101 


I am,”  replied  Pierce,  “ in  a case  like  this.”  “ You 
cannot  touch  your  foot  to  the  stirrup,”  said  Scott- 
“ One  of  them  I can,”  answered  Pierce.  The  gen- 
eral looked  again  at  Pierce’s  almost  disabled  figure, 
and  seemed  on  the  point  of  taking  his  irrevocable 
resolution.  “ You  are  rash,  General  Pierce,”  said 
he  ; “ we  shall  lose  you,  and  we  cannot  spare  you. 
It  is  my  duty  to  order  you  back  to  St.  Augustine.” 
“For  God’s  sake, general,” exclaimed  Pierce,  “ don’t 
say  that ! This  is  the  last  great  battle,  and  I must 
lead  my  brigade ! ” The  commander-in-chief  made 
no  further  remonstrance,  but  gave  the  order  for 
Pierce  to  advance  with  his  brigade. 

The  way  lay  through  thick  standing  corn,  and 
over  marshy  ground  intersected  with  ditches,  which 
were  filled,  or  partially  so,  with  water.  Over  some 
of  the  narrower  of  these  Pierce  leaped  his  horse. 
When  the  brigade  had  advanced  about  a mile, 
however,  it  found  itself  impeded  by  a ditch  ten  or 
twelve  feet  wide,  and  six  or  eight  feet  deep.  It 
being  impossible  to  leap  it,  General  Pierce  was 
lifted  from  his  saddle,  and,  in  some  incomprehen- 
sible way,  hurt  as  he  was,  contrived  to  wade  or 
scramble  across  this  obstacle,  leaving  his  horse  on 
the  hither  side.  The  troops  were  now  under  fire. 
In  the  excitement  of  the  battle,  he  forgot  his  inju- 
ry, and  hurried  forward,  leading  the  brigade,  a 
distance  of  two  or  three  hundred  yards.  But  the 
exhaustion  of  his  frame,  and  particularly  the  an- 
guish of  his  knee,  — made  more  intolerable  by  such 
9* 


102 


LIFE  OF 


free  use  of  it,  — was  greater  than  any  strength  of 
nerve,  or  any  degree  of  mental  energy,  could 
struggle  against.  He  fell,  faint  and  almost  insen- 
sible, within  full  range  of  the  enemy’s  fire.  It  was 
proposed  to  bear  him  off'  the  field  ; but,  as  some 
of  his  soldiers  approached  to  lift  him,  he  became 
aware  of  their  purpose,  and  was  partially  revived 
by  his  determination  to  resist  it.  “ No,”  said  he, 
with  all  the  strength  he  had  left,  “ don’t  carry 
me  off!  Let  me  lie  here!”  And  there  he  lay, 
under  the  tremendous  fire  of  Churubusco,  until  the 
enemy,  in  total  rout,  was  driven  from  the  field. 

Immediately  after  the  victory,  when  the  city  of 
Mexico  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  American  com- 
mander, and  might  have  been  entered  that  very 
night,  Santa  Anna  sent  a flag  of  truce,  proposing 
an  armistice,  with  a view  to  negotiations  for  peace. 
It  cannot  be  considered  in  any  other  light  than  as 
a very  high  and  signal  compliment  to  his  gallantry 
in  the  field,  that  General  Pierce  was  appointed,  by 
the  commander-in-chief,  one  of  the  commissioners 
on  our  part,  together  with  General  Quitman  and 
General  Persifer  F.  Smith,  to  arrange  the  terms 
of  this  armistice.  Pierce  was  unable  to  walk,  or 
to  mount  his  horse  without  assistance,  when  intel- 
ligence of  his  appointment  reached  him.  He  had 
not  taken  off  his  spurs,  nor  slept  an  hour,  for  two 
nights ; but  he  immediately  obeyed  the  summons, 
was  assisted  into  the  saddle,  and  rode  to  Tacubaya, 
where,  at  the  house  of  the  British  consul  general, 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


103 


the  American  and  Mexican  commissioners  were 
assembled.  The  conference  began  late  in  the 
afternoon,  and  continued  till  four  o’clock  the  next 
morning,  when  the  articles  were  signed.  Pierce 
then  proceeded  to  the  quarters  of  General  Worth, 
in  the  village  of  Tacubaya,  where  he  obtained  an 
hour  or  two  of  repose. 

The  expectation  of  General  Scott,  that  further 
bloodshed  might  be  avoided  by  means  of  the  armis- 
tice, proved  deceptive.  Military  operations,  after 
a temporary  interruption,  were  actively  renewed  ; 
and  on  the  8th  of  September  was  fought  the 
bloody  battle  of  Molino  del  Rey,  one  of  the  fiercest 
and  most  destructive  of  the  war. 

In  this  conflict,  General  Worth,  with  three  thou- 
sand troops,  attacked  and  routed  fourteen  thousand 
Mexicans,  driving  them  under  the  protection  of 
the  Castle  of  Chepultepec.  Perceiving  the  obsti- 
nacy with  which  the  field  was  contested,  the  com- 
mander-in-chief despatched  an  order  to  General 
Pierce  to  advance  to  the  support  of  General 
Worth’s  division.  He  moved  forward  with  rapid- 
ity ; and  although  the  battle  was  won  just  as  he 
reached  the  field,  he  interposed  his  brigade  between 
Worth  and  the  retreating  enemy,  and  thus  drew 
upon  himself  the  fire  of  Chepultepec.  A shell 
came  streaming  from  the  castle,  and,  bursting 
within  a few  feet  of  him,  startled  his  horse,  which 
was  near  plunging  over  an  adjacent  precipice. 
Continuing  a long  time  under  fire,  Pierce’s  brigade 


104 


LIFE  OF 


was  engaged  in  removing  the  wounded,  and  the 
captured  ammunition.  While  thus  occupied,  he 
led  a portion  of  his  command  to  repel  the  attacks 
of  the  enemy’s  skirmishers. 

There  remained  but  one  other  battle,  — that  of 
Chepultepec,  — which  was  fought  on  the  13th 
of  September.  On  the  preceding  day,  (although 
the  injuries  and  the  over-exertion,  resulting  from 
previous  marches  and  battles,  had  greatly  enfeebled 
him,)  General  Pierce  had  acted  with  his  brigade. 
In  obedience  to  orders,  it  had  occupied  the  field  of 
Molino  del  Rey.  Contrary  to  expectation,  it  was 
found  that  the  enemy’s  force  had  been  withdrawn 
from  this  position.  Pierce  remained  in  the  field 
until  noon,  when,  it  being  certain  that  the  antici- 
pated attack  would  not  take  place  before  the  fol- 
lowing day,  he  returned  to  the  quarters  of  General 
Worth,  which  were  near  at  hand.  There  he  be- 
came extremely  ill,  and  was  unable  to  leave  his 
bed  for  the  thirty-six  hours  next  ensuing.  In  the 
mean  time,  the  Castle  of  Chepultepec  was  stormed 
by  the  troops  under  Generals  Pillow  and  Quitman. 
Pierce’s  brigade  behaved  itself  gallantly,  and  suf- 
fered severely ; and  that  accomplished  officer, 
Colonel  Ransom,  leading  the  Ninth  Regiment  to 
the  attack,  was  shot  through  the  head,  and  fell, 
with  many  other  brave  men,  in  that  last  battle 
of  the  war. 

The  American  troops,  under  Quitman  and 
Worth,  had  established  themselves  within  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


105 


limits  of  the  city,  having  possession  of  the  gates 
of  Belen  and  of  San  Cosma,  but,  up  till  nightfall, 
had  met  with  a vigorous  resistance  from  the  Mexi- 
cans, led  on  by  Santa  Anna  in  person.  They  had 
still,  apparently,  a desperate  task  before  them.  It 
was  anticipated,  that,  with  the  next  morning’s 
light,  our  troops  would  be  ordered  to  storm  the 
citadel,  and  the  city  of  Mexico  itself.  When  this 
was  told  to  Pierce,  upon  his  sick  bed,  he  rose,  and 
attempted  to  dress  himself ; but  Captain  Hard- 
castle,  who  had  brought  the  intelligence  from 
Worth,  prevailed  upon  him  to  remain  in  bed,  and 
not  to  exhaust  his  scanty  strength,  until  the  immi- 
nence of  the  occasion  should  require  his  presence. 
Pierce  acquiesced  for  the  time,  but  again  arose,  in 
the  course  of  the  night,  and  made  his  way  to  the 
trenches,  where  he  reported  himself  to  General 
Quitman,  with  whose  division  was  a part  of  his 
brigade.  Quitman’s  share  in  the  anticipated  as- 
sault, it  was  supposed,  owing  to  the  position  which 
his  troops  occupied,  would  be  more  perilous  than 
that  of  Worth. 

But  the  last  great  battle  had  been  fought.  In 
the  morning,  it  was  discovered  that  the  citadel  had 
been  abandoned,  and  that  Santa  Anna  had  with- 
drawn his  army  from  the  city. 

There  never  was  a more  gallant  body  of  officers 
than  those  who  came  from  civil  life  into  the  army 
on  occasion  of  the  Mexican  war.  All  of  them, 
from  the  rank  of  general  downward,  appear  to  have 


106 


LIFE  OF 


been  animated  by  the  spirit  of  young  knights,  in 
times  of  chivalry,  when  fighting  for  their  spurs. 
Hitherto  known  only  as  peaceful  citizens,  they  felt 
it  incumbent  on  them,  by  daring  and  desperate 
valor,  to  prove  their  fitness  to  be  intrusted  with 
the  guardianship  of  their  country’s  honor.  The 
old  and  trained  soldier,  already  distinguished  on 
former  fields,  was  free  to  be  discreet,  as  well  as 
brave ; but  these  untried  warriors  were  in  a differ- 
ent position,  and  therefore  rushed  on  perils  with  a 
recklessness  that  found  its  penalty  on  every  battle 
field  — not  one  of  which  was  won  without  a griev- 
ous sacrifice  of  the  best  blood  of  America.  In  this 
band  of  gallant  men,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say, 
General  Pierce  was  as  distinguished  for  what  we 
must  term  his  temerity  in  personal  exposure,  as  for 
the  higher  traits  of  leadership,  wherever  there  was 
an  opportunity  for  their  display. 

He  had  manifested,  moreover,  other  and  better 
qualities  than  these,  and  such  as  it  affords  his  bi- 
ographer far  greater  pleasure  to  record.  His  ten- 
derness of  heart,  his  sympathy,  his  brotherly  or 
paternal  care  for  his  men,  had  been  displayed  in  a 
hundred  instances,  and  had  gained  him  the  enthu- 
siastic affection  of  all  who  served  under  his  com- 
mand. During  the  passage  from  America,  under 
the  tropics,  he  would  go  down  into  the  stifling  air 
of  the  hold,  with  a lemon,  a cup  of  tea,  and,  better 
and  more  efficacious  than  all,  a kind  word,  for  the 
sick.  While  encamped  before  Yera  Cruz,  he  gave 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


107 


up  his  own  tent  to  a sick  comrade,  and  went  him- 
self to  lodge  in  the  pestilential  city.  On  the  march, 
and  even  on  the  battle  field,  he  found  occasion  to 
exercise  those  feelings  of  humanity  which  show 
most  beautifully  there.  And,  in  the  hospitals  of 
Mexico,  he  went  among  the  diseased  and  wounded 
soldiers,  cheering  them  with  his  voice  and  the 
magic  of  his  kindness,  inquiring  into  their  wants, 
and  relieving  them  to  the  utmost  of  his  pecuniary 
means.  There  was  not  a man  of  his  brigade  but 
loved  him,  and  would  have  followed  him  to  death, 
or  have  sacrificed  his  own  life  in  his  general’s 
defence. 

The  officers  of  the  old  army,  whose  profession 
was  war,  and  who  well  knew  what  a soldier  was, 
and  ought  to  be,  fully  recognized  his  merit.  An 
instance  of  their  honorable  testimony  in  his  behalf 
may  fitly  be  recorded  here.  It  was  after  General 
Pierce  had  returned  to  the  United  States.  At  a 
dinner  in  the  halls  of  Montezuma,  at  which  forty 
or  fifty  of  the  brave  men  above  alluded  to  were 
present,  a young  officer  of  the  New  England  regi- 
ment was  called  on  for  a toast.  He  made  an 
address,  in  which  he  spoke  with  irrepressible  en- 
thusiasm of  General  Pierce,  and  begged  to  propose 
his  health.  One  of  the  officers  of  the  old  line  rose, 
and  observed,  that  none  of  the  recently  appointed 
generals  commanded  more  unanimous  and  univer- 
sal respect ; that  General  Pierce  had  appreciated  the 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  regular  military  men, 
and  had  acquired  their  respect  by  the  independ- 


10S 


LIFE  OF 


ence,  firmness,  and  promptitude,  with  which  he 
exercised  his  own  judgment,  and  acted  on  the  in- 
telligence derived  from  them.  In  concluding  this 
tribute  of  high,  but  well-considered  praise,  the 
speaker  very  cordially  acquiesced  in  the  health  of 
General  Pierce,  and  proposed  that  it  should  be 
drunk  standing,  with  three  times  three. 

General  Pierce  remained  in  Mexico  until  De- 
cember, when,  as  the  warfare  was  over,  and  peace 
on  the  point  of  being  concluded,  he  set  out  on  his 
return.  In  nine  months,  crowded  full  of  incident, 
he  had  seen  far  more  of  actual  service  than  many 
professional  soldiers  during  their  whole  lives.  As 
soon  as  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed,  he  gave  up 
his  commission,  and  returned  to  the  practice  of  the 
law,  again  proposing  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his 
days  in  the  bosom  of  his  family.  All  the  dreams 
of  his  youth  were  now  fulfilled ; the  military  ardor, 
that  had  struck  an  hereditary  root  in  his  breast, 
had  enjoyed  its  scope,  and  was  satisfied ; and  he 
flattered  himself  that  no  circumstances  could  here- 
after occur  to  draw  him  from  the  retirement  of 
domestic  peace.  New  Hampshire  received  him 
with  pride  and  honor,  and  with  even  more  enthu- 
siastic affection  than  ever.  At  his  departure,  he 
had  received  a splendid  sword  at  the  hands  of 
many  of  his  friends,  in  token  of  their  confidence  ; 
he  had  shown  himself  well  worthy  to  wear,  and 
able  to  use,  a soldier’s  weapon ; and  his  native 
state  now  gave  him  another,  the  testimonial  of 
approved  valor  and  warlike  conduct. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


109 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  COMPROMISE  AND  OTHER  MATTERS. 

The  intervening  years,  since  General  Pierce’s 
return  from  Mexico,  and  until  the  present  time, 
have  been  spent  in  the  laborious  exercise  of  the 
legal  profession  — an  employment  scarcely  varied 
or  interrupted,  except  by  those  episodes  of  political 
activity  which  a man  of  public  influence  finds  it 
impossible  to  avoid,  and  in  which,  if  his  opinions 
are  matter  of  conscience  with  him,  he  feels  it  his 
duty  to  interest  himself. 

In  the  presidential  canvass  of  1848,  he  used  his 
best  efforts  (and  with  success,  so  far  as  New  Hamp- 
shire was  concerned)  in  behalf  of  the  candidate 
of  his  party.  A truer  and  better  speech  has  never 
been  uttered,  on  a similar  occasion,  than  one  which 
he  made,  (during  a hurried  half  hour,  snatched  from 
the  court  room,)  in  October  of  the  above  year,  be- 
fore the  democratic  state  convention,  then  in  ses- 
sion at  Concord.  It  is  an  invariable  characteristic 
of  General  Pierce’s  popular  addresses,  that  they 
evince  a genuine  respect  for  the  people ; he  makes 
his  appeal  to  then-  intelligence,  their  patriotism, 
and  their  integrity,  and,  never  doubtful  of  their 
upright  purpose,  proves  his  faith  in  the  great  mind 
10 


110 


LIFE  OF 


and  heart  of  the  country  both  by  what  he  says  and 
by  what  he  refrains  from  saying.  He  never  yet 
was  guilty  of  an  effort  to  cajole  his  fellow-citizens, 
to  operate  upon  their  credulity,  or  to  trick  them 
even  into  what  was  right ; and  therefore  all  the 
victories  which  he  has  ever  won  in  popular  assem- 
blies have  been  triumphs  doubly  honored,  being  as 
creditable  to  his  audiences  as  to  himself. 

When  the  series  of  measures  known  under  the 
collective  term  of  The  Compromise  were  passed 
by  Congress,  in  1850,  and  put  to  so  searching  a 
test,  here  at  the  north,  the  reverence  of  the  people 
for  the  constitution,  and  their  attachment  to  the 
Union,  General  Pierce  was  true  to  the  principles 
which  he  had  long  ago  avowed.  At  an  early 
period  of  his  congressional  service,  he  had  made 
known,  with  the  perfect  frankness  of  his  character, 
those  opinions  upon  the  slavery  question  which 
he  has  never  since  seen  occasion  to  change  in  the 
slightest  degree.  There  is  an  unbroken  consistency 
in  his  action  with  regard  to  this  matter.  It  is  en- 
tirely of  a piece,  from  his  first  entrance  upon  public 
life  until  the  moment  when  he  came  forward,  while 
many  were  faltering,  to  throw  the  great  weight  of 
his  character  and  influence  into  the  scale  in  favor 
of  those  measures  through  which  it  was  intended 
to  redeem  the  pledges  of  the  constitution,  and  to 
preserve  and  renew  the  old  love  and  harmony 
among  the  sisterhood  of  states.  His  approval 
embraced  the  whole  series  of  these  acts,  as  well 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


Ill 


those  which  bore  hard  upon  northern  views  and 
sentiments  as  those  in  which  the  south  deemed 
itself  to  have  made  more  than  reciprocal  con- 
cessions. 

No  friend  nor  enemy,  that  knew  Franklin  Pierce, 
would  have  expected  him  to  act  otherwise.  With 
his  view  of  the  wdiole  subject,  whether  looking  at 
it  through  the  medium  of  his  conscience,  his  feel- 
ings, or  his  intellect,  it  wras  impossible  for  him  not 
to  take  his  stand  as  the  unshaken  advocate  of 
Union,  and  of  the  mutual  steps  of  compromise 
which  that  great  object  unquestionably  demanded. 
The  fiercest,  the  least  scrupulous,  and  the  most 
consistent  of  those  wrho  battle  against  slavery  rec- 
ognize the  same  fact  that  he  does.  They  see  that 
merely  human  wisdom  and  human  efforts  cannot 
subvert  it  except  by  tearing  to  pieces  the  constitu- 
tion, breaking  the  pledges  which  it  sanctions,  and 
severing  into  distracted  fragments  that  common 
country  which  Providence  brought  into  one  nation, 
through  a continued  miracle  of  almost  two  hundred 
years,  from  the  first  settlement  of  the  American 
wilderness  until  the  revolution.  In  the  days  when, 
a young  member  of  Congress,  he  first  raised  his 
voice  against  agitation,  Pierce  saw  these  perils  and 
their  consequences.  He  considered,  too,  that  the 
evil  would  be  certain,  wdiile  the  good  was,  at  best, 
a contingency,  and  (to  the  clear,  practical  foresight 
with  which  he  looked  into  the  future)  scarcely  so 
much  as  that,  attended,  as  the  movement  wTas  and 


112 


LIFE  OF 


must  be,  during  its  progress,  with  the  aggravated 
injury  of  those  whose  condition  it  aimed  to  ame- 
liorate, and  terminating,  in  its  possible  triumph,  — 
if  such  possibility  there  were,  — with  the  ruin  of 
two  races  which  now  dwelt  together  in  greater 
peace  and  affection,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  than 
had  ever  elsewhere  existed  between  the  taskmaster 
and  the  serf. 

Of  course,  there  is  another  view  of  all  these 
matters.  The  theorist  may  take  that  view  in  his 
closet ; the  philanthropist  by  profession  may  strive 
to  act  upon  it  uncompromisingly,  amid  the  tumult 
and  warfare  of  his  life.  But  the  statesman  of  prac- 
tical sagacity  — who  loves  his  country  as  it  is,  and 
evolves  good  from  things  as  they  exist,  and  who 
demands  to  feel  his  firm  grasp  upon  a better  reality 
before  he  quits  the  one  already  gained  — will  be 
likely  here,  with  all  the  greatest  statesmen  of  Amer- 
ica, to  stand  in  the  attitude  of  a conservative. 
Such,  at  all  events,  will  be  the  attitude  of  Franklin 
Pierce.  We  have  sketched  some  of  the  influences 
amid  which  he  grew  up,  inheriting  his  father’s  love 
of  country,  mindful  of  the  old  patriot’s  valor  in  so 
many  conflicts  of  the  revolution,  and  having  close 
before  his  eyes  the  example  of  brothers  and  rela- 
tives, more  than  one  of  whom  have  bled  for  Amer- 
ica, both  at  the  extremest  north  and  farthest  south ; 
himself,  too,  in  early  manhood,  serving  the  Union 
in  its  legislative  halls,  and,  at  a maturer  age,  lead- 
ing his  fellow-citizens,  his  brethren,  from  the  widest- 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


115 


this  great  subject,  fully  and  unreservedly  indorsing 
the  measures  comprehended  under  it,  and  declaring 
the  principles  on  which  the  Democracy  of  the  state 
was  about  to  engage  in  the  gubernatorial  contest. 
Mr.  Atwood  accepted  the  nomination,  acceding  to 
the  platform  thus  tendered  him,  taking  exceptions 
to  none  of  the  individual  resolutions,  and,  of  course, 
pledging  himself  to  the  whole  by  the  very  act  of 
assuming  the  candidacy,  which  was  predicated 
upon  them. 

The  reverend  candidate,  we  should  conceive,  is 
a well-meaning,  and  probably  an  amiable  man. 
In  ordinary  circumstances,  he  would,  doubtless, 
have  gone  through  the  canvass  triumphantly,  and 
have  administered  the  high  office  to  which  he  as- 
pired with  no  discredit  to  the  party  that  had  placed 
him  at  its  head.  But  the  disturbed  state  of  the 
public  mind  on  the  Compromise  Question  rendered 
the  season  a very  critical  one ; and  Mr.  Atwood, 
unfortunately,  had  that  fatal  weakness  of  character, 
which,  however  respectably  it  may  pass  in  quiet 
times,  is  always  bound  to  make  itself  pitiably  man- 
ifest under  the  pressure  of  a crisis.  A letter  was 
addressed  to  him  by  a committee,  representing  the 
party  opposed  to  the  Compromise,  and  with  whom, 
it  may  be  supposed,  were  included  those  who  held 
the  more  thorough-going  degrees  of  anti-slavery 
sentiment.  The  purpose  of  the  letter  was  to  draw 
out  an  expression  of  Mr.  Atwood’s  opinion  on  the- 
abolition  movement  generally,  and  with  an  especial 


116 


LIFE  OF 


reference  to  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  whether, 
as  chief  magistrate  of  the  state,  he  would  favor 
any  attempt  for  its  repeal.  In  an  answer  of  con- 
siderable length,  the  candidate  expressed  senti- 
ments that  brought  him  unquestionably  within  the 
Free  Soil  pale,  and  favored  his  correspondents, 
moreover,  with  a pretty  decided  judgment  as  to 
the  unconstitutional,  unjust,  and  oppressive  char- 
acter of  the  Fugitive  Slave  act. 

During  a space  of  about  two  months,  this  very 
important  document  was  kept  from  the  public  eye. 
Rumors  of  its  existence,  however,  became  gradually 
noised  abroad,  and  necessarily  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  Mr.  Atwood’s  democratic  friends.  Inquiries 
being  made,  he  acknowledged  the  existence  of  the 
letter,  but  averred  that  it  had  never  been  delivered, 
that  it  was  merely  a rough  draught,  and  that  he  had 
hitherto  kqpt  it  within  his  own  control,  with  a view 
to  more  careful  consideration.  In  accordance  with 
the  advice  of  friends,  he  expressed  a determination, 
and  apparently  in  good  faith,  to  suppress  the  let- 
ter, and  thus  to  sever  all  connection  with  the  anti- 
slavery party.  This,  however,  was  now  beyond 
his  power.  A copy  of  the  letter  had  been  taken  ; 
it  was  published,  with  high  commendations,  in  the 
anti-slavery  newspapers ; and  Mr.  Atwood  was  ex- 
hibited in  the  awkward  predicament  of  directly 
avowing  sentiments  on  the  one  hand  which  he  had 
implicitly  disavowed,  on  the  other,  of  accepting 
a nomination  based  on  principles  diametrically 
opposite. 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


117 


The  candidate  appears  to  have  apprehended  this 
disclosure,  and  he  hurried  to  Concord,  and  sought 
counsel  of  General  Pierce,  with  whom  he  was  on 
terms  of  personal  kindness,  and  between  whom 
and  himself,  heretofore,  there  had  never  been  a 
shade  of  political  difference.  An  interview  with 
the  general  and  one  or  two  other  gentlemen  en- 
sued. Mr.  Atwood  was  cautioned  against  saying 
or  writing  a word  that  might  be  repugnant  to  his 
feelings  or  his  principles ; but,  voluntarily,  and  at 
his  own  suggestion,  he  now  wrote,  for  publication, 
a second  letter,  in  which  he  retracted  every  objec- 
tionable feature  of  his  former  one,  and  took  de- 
cided ground  in  favor  of  the  Compromise,  including 
all  its  individual  measures.  Had  he  adhered  to 
this  latter  position,  he  might  have  come  out  of  the 
affair,  if  not  with  the  credit  of  consistency,  yet,  at 
least,  as  a successful  candidate  in  the  impending 
election.  But  his  evil  fate,  or,  rather,  the  natural 
infirmity  of  his  character,  was  not  so  to  be  thrown 
off.  The  very  next  day,  unhappily,  he  fell  into  the 
hands  of  some  of  his  anti-slavery  friends,  to  whom 
he  avowed  a constant  adherence  to  the  principles 
of  his  first  letter,  describing  the  second  as  having 
been  drawn  from  him  by  importunity,  in  an  ex- 
cited state  of  his  mind,  and  without  a full  realiza- 
tion of  its  purport. 

It  would  be  needlessly  cruel  to  Mr.  Atwood  to 
trace,  with  minuteness,  the  further  details  of  this 
affair.  It  is  impossible  to  withhold  from  him  a 


118 


LIFE  OF 


certain,  sympathy,  or  to  avoid  feeling  that  a very 
worthy  man,  as  the  world  goes,  had  entangled 
himself  in  an  inextricable  knot  of  duplicity  and 
tergiversation,  by  an  ill-advised  effort  to  be  two 
opposite  things  at  once.  For  the  sake  of  true  man- 
hood, we  gladly  turn  to  consider  the  course  adopted 
by  General  Pierce. 

The  election  for  governor  was  now  at  a distance 
of  only  a few  weeks ; and  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise than  a most  hazardous  movement  for  the 
democratic  party,  at  so  late  a period,  to  discard  a 
candidate  with  whom  the  people  had  become  fa- 
miliar. It  involved  nothing  less  than  the  imminent 
peril  of  that  political  supremacy  which  the  party 
had  so  long  enjoyed.  With  Mr.  Atwood  as  can- 
didate, success  might  still  be  considered  certain. 
To  a short-sighted  and  a weak  man,  it  would  have 
appeared  the  obvious  policy  to  patch  up  the  diffi- 
culty, and,  at  all  events,  to  conquer,  under  what- 
ever leadership,  and  with  whatever  allies.  But  it 
was  one  of  those  junctures  which  test  the  differ- 
ence between  the  man  of  principle  and  the  mere 
politician  — the  man  of  moral  courage  and  him 
who  yields  to  temporary  expediency.  General 
Pierce  could  not  consent  that  his  party  should  gain 
a nominal  triumph,  at  the  expense  of  what  he 
looked  upon  as  its  real  integrity  and  life.  With 
this  view  of  the  matter,  he  had  no  hesitation  in  his 
course ; nor  co  uld  the  motives  which  otherwise 
would  have  been  strongest  with  him  — pity  for  the 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


119 


situation  of  an  unfortunate  individual,  a personal 
Mend,  a democrat,  as  Mr.  Atwood  describes  him- 
self, of  nearly  fifty  years’  standing  — incline  him 
to  mercy,  where  it  would  have  been  fatal  to  his 
sense  of  right.  He  took  decided  ground  against 
Mr.  Atwood.  The  convention  met  again,  and 
nominated  another  candidate.  Mr.  Atwood  went 
into  the  field  as  the  candidate  of  the  anti-slavery 
party,  drew  off  a sufficient  body  of  democrats  to 
defeat  the  election  by  the  people,  but  was  himself 
defeated  in  the  legislature. 

Thus,  after  exhibiting  to  the  eyes  of  mankind 
(or  such  portion  of  mankind  as  chanced  to  be  look- 
ing in  that  direction)  the  absurd  spectacle  of  a 
gentleman  of  extremely  moderate  stride  attempt- 
ing a feat  that  would  have  baffled  a Colossus, — 
to  support  himself,  namely,  on  both  margins  of  the 
impassable  chasm  that  has  always  divided  the 
anti-slavery  faction  from  the  New  Hampshire  De- 
mocracy, — this  ill-fated  man  attempted  first  to 
throw  himself  upon  one  side  of  the  gulf,  then  on 
the  other,  and  finally  tumbled  headlong  into  the 
bottomless  depth  between.  His  case  presents  a 
painful,  but  very  curious  and  instructive  instance 
of  the  troubles  that  beset  weakness,  in  those  emer- 
gencies which  demand  steadfast  moral  strength 
and  energy  — of  which  latter  type  of  manly  char- 
acter there  can  be  no  truer  example  than  Franklin 
Pierce. 

In  the  autumn  of  1850,  in  pursuance  of  a vote 


120 


LIFE  OF 


of  the  people,  a convention  assembled  at  Concord 
for  the  revision  of  the  constitution  of  New  Hamp- 
shire. General  Pierce  was  elected  its  president  by 
an  almost  unanimous  vote  — a very  high  mark  of 
the  affectionate  confidence  which  the  state,  for  so 
long  a time,  and  in  such  a variety  of  modes,  had 
manifested  in  him.  It  was  so  much  the  higher,  as 
the  convention  included  New  Hampshire’s  most 
eminent  citizens,  among  whom  was  Judge  Wood- 
bury. 

General  Pierce’s  conduct,  as  presiding  officer, 
was  satisfactory  to  all  parties ; and  one  of  his  po- 
litical opponents  (Professor  Sanborn,  of  Dartmouth 
College)  has  ably  sketched  him,  both  in  that  aspect 
and  as  a debater. 

“ In  drawing  the  portraits  of  the  distinguished 
members  of  the  constitutional  convention,”  writes 
the  professor,  “ to  pass  Frank  Pierce  unnoticed 
would  be  as  absurd  as  to  enact  one  of  Shakspeare’s 
dramas  without  its  principal  hero.  I give  my  im- 
pressions of  the  man  as  I saw  him  in  the  conven- 
tion ; for  I would  not  undertake  to  vouch  for  the 
truth  or  falsehood  of  those  veracious  organs  of 
public  sentiment,  at  the  capital,  which  have  loaded 
him,  in  turn,  with  indiscriminate  praise  and  abuse. 
As  a presiding  officer,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find 
his  equal.  In  proposing  questions  to  the  house,  he 
never  hesitates  or  blunders.  In  deciding  points  of 
order,  he  is  both  prompt  and  impartial.  His  treat- 
ment of  every  member  of  the  convention  was 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


121 


characterized  by  uniform  courtesy  and  kindness. 
The  deportment  of  the  presiding  officer  of  a delib- 
erative body  usually  gives  tone  to  the  debates. 
If  he  is  harsh,  morose,  or  abrupt  in  his  manner,  the 
speakers  are  apt  to  catch  his  spirit  by  the  force  of 
involuntary  sympathy.  The  same  is  true,  to  some 
extent,  of  the  principal  debaters  in  such  a body. 
When  a man  of  strong  prejudices  and  harsh  temper 
rises  to  address  a public  assembly,  his  indwelling 
antipathies  speak  from  every  feature  of  his  face, 
and  from  every  motion  of  his  person.  The  audi- 
ence at  once  brace  themselves  against  his  assaults, 
and  condemn  his  opinions  before  they  are  heard. 
The  well-known  character  of  an  orator  persuades 
or  dissuades  quite  as  forcibly  as  the  language  he 
utters.  Some  men  never  rise  to  address  a delibera- 
tive assembly  without  conciliating  good  will  in 
advance.  The  smile  that  plays  upon  the  speaker’s 
face  awakens  emotions  of  complacency  in  those 
who  hear,  even  before  he  speaks.  So  does  that 
weight  of  character,  which  is  the  matured  fruit  of 
long  public  services  and  acknowledged  worth, 
soothe,  in  advance,  the  irritated  and  angry  crowd. 

“ Mr.  Pierce  possesses  unquestioned  ability  as  a 
public  speaker.  Few  men,  in  our  country,  better 
understand  the  means  of  swaying  a popular  as- 
sembly, or  employ  them  with  greater  success.  His 
forte  lies  in  moving  the  passions  of  those  whom 
he  addresses.  He  knows  how  to  call  into  vigorous 
action  both  the  sympathies  and  antipathies  of 
11 


122 


LIFE  OF 


those  who  listen  to  him.  I do  not  mean  to  imply 
by  these  remarks  that  his  oratory  is  deficient  in 
argument  or  sound  reasoning.  On  the  contrary, 
he  seizes  with  great  power  upon  the  strong  points 
of  his  subject,  and  presents  them  clearly,  forcibly, 
and  eloquently.  As  a prompt  and  ready  debater, 
always  prepared  for  assault  or  defence,  he  has  few 
equals.  In  these  encounters,  he  appears  to  great 
advantage,  from  his  happy  faculty  of  turning  little 
incidents,  unexpectedly  occurring,  to  his  own  ac- 
count. A word  carelessly  dropped,  or  an  un- 
guarded allusion  to  individuals  or  parties,  by  an 
opponent,  is  frequently  converted  into  a powerful 
weapon  of  assault,  by  this  skilful  advocate.  He 
has  been  so  much  in  office,  that  he  may  be  said  to 
have  been  educated  in  public  life.  He  is  most 
thoroughly  versed  in  all  the  tactics  of  debate.  He 
is  not  only  remarkably  fluent  in  his  elocution,  but 
remarkably  correct.  He  seldom  miscalls  or  repeats 
a word.  His  style  is  not  overloaded  with  orna- 
ment, and  yet  he  draws  liberally  upon  the  treasury 
of  rhetoric.  His  figures  are  often  beautiful  and 
striking,  never  incongruous.  He  is  always  listened 
to  with  respectful  attention,  if  he  does  not  always 
command  conviction.  From  his  whole  course  in 
the  convention,  a disinterested  spectator  could  not 
fail  to  form  a very  favorable  opinion,  not  only  of 
his  talent  and  eloquence,  but  of  his  generosity  and 
magnanimity.” 

Among  other  antiquated  relics  of  the  past,  and 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


123 


mouldy  types  of  prejudices  that  ought  now  to  be 
forgotten,  and  of  which  it  was  the  object  of  the 
present  convention  to  purge  the  constitution  of 
New  Hampshire,  there  is  a provision,  that  certain 
state  offices  should  be  held  only  by  Protestants. 
Since  General  Pierce’s  nomination  for  the  presi- 
dency, the  existence  of  this  religious  test  has  been 
brought  as  a charge  against  him,  as  if,  in  spite  of 
his  continued  efforts  to  remove  it,  he  were  per- 
sonally responsible  for  its  remaining  on  the  statute 
book. 

General  Pierce  has  naturally  a strong  endow- 
ment of  religious  feeling.  At  no  period  of  his 
life,  as  is  well  known  to  his  friends,  have  the  sacred 
relations  of  the  human  soul  been  a matter  of  indif- 
ference with  him  ; and,  of  more  recent  years,  what- 
ever circumstances  of  good  or  evil  fortune  may 
have  befallen  him,  they  have  alike  served  to  deepen 
this  powerful  sentiment.  Whether  in  sorrow  or 
success,  he  has  learned,  in  his  own  behalf,  the  great 
lesson,  that  religious  faith  is  the  most  valuable  and 
most  sacred  of  human  possessions  ; but,  with  this 
sense,  there  has  come  no  narrowness  or  illiberality, 
but  a wide-embracing  sympathy  for  the  modes  of 
Christian  worship,  and  a reverence  for  individual 
belief,  as  a matter  between  the  Deity  and  man’s 
soul,  and  with  which  no  other  has  a right  to  inter- 
fere. With  the  feeling  here  described,  and  with 
his  acute  intellectual  perception  of  the  abortive 
character  of  all  intolerant  measures,  as  defeating 


124 


LIFE  OF 


their  own  ends,  it  strikes  one  as  nothing  less  than 
ludicrous  that  he  should  be  charged  with  desiring 
to  retain  this  obsolete  enactment,  standing,  as  it 
does,  as  a merely  gratuitous  and  otherwise  inoper- 
ative stigma  upon  the  fair  reputation  of  his  native 
state.  Even  supposing  no  higher  motives  to  have 
influenced  him,  it  would  have  sufficed  to  secure 
his  best  efforts  for  the  repeal  of  the  religious  test, 
that  so  many  of  the  Catholics  have  always  been 
found  in  the  advance-guard  of  freedom,  marching 
onward  with  the  progressive  party ; and  that, 
whether  in  peace  or  war,  they  have  performed  for 
their  adopted  country  the  hard  toil  and  the  gallant 
services  which  she  has  a right  to  expect  from  her 
most  faithful  citizens. 

The  truth  is,  that,  ever  since  his  entrance  upon 
public  life,  on  all  occasions,  — and  often  making 
the  occasion  where  he  found  none,  — General 
Pierce  has  done  his  utmost  to  obliterate  this  ob- 
noxious feature  from  the  constitution.  He  has 
repeatedly  advocated  the  calling  of  a convention 
mainly  for  this  purpose.  In  that  of  1850,  he  both 
spoke  and  voted  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  the 
test,  and,  with  the  aid  of  Judge  Woodbury  and 
other  democratic  members,  attained  his  purpose, 
so  far  as  the  convention  possessed  any  power  or 
responsibility  in  the  matter.  That  the  measure  was 
ultimately  defeated  is  due  to  other  causes,  either 
temporary  or  of  long  continuance ; and  to  some  of 
them  it  is  attributable  that  the  enlightened  public 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


125 


sentiment  of  New  Hampshire  was  not,  long  since, 
made  to  operate  upon  this  enactment,  so  anoma- 
lous in  the  fundamental  law  of  a free  state. 

In  order  to  the  validity  of  the  amendments  passed 
by  the  convention,  it  was  necessary  that  the  people 
should  subsequently  act  upon  them,  and  pass  a 
vote  of  two  thirds  in  favor  of  their  adoption.  The 
amendments  proposed  by  the  convention  of  1850 
were  numerous.  The  constitution  had  been  modi- 
fied in  many  and  very  important  particulars,  in 
respect  to  which  the  popular  mind  had  not  pre- 
viously been  made  familiar,  and  on  which  it  had 
not  anticipated  the  necessity  of  passing  judgment. 
In  March,  1851,  when  the  vote  of  the  people  was 
taken  upon  these  measures,  the  Atwood  controver- 
sy was  at  its  height,  and  threw  all  matters  of  less 
immediate  interest  into  the  background.  During 
the  interval  since  the  adjournment  of  the  conven- 
tion, the  whig  newspapers  had  been  indefatigable 
in  their  attempts  to  put  its  proceedings  in  an  odious 
light  before  the  people.  There  had  been  no  period, 
for  many  years,  in  which  sinister  influences  ren- 
dered it  so  difficult  to  draw  out  an  efficient  expres- 
sion of  the  will  of  the  democracy,  as  on  this 
occasion.  It  was  the  result  of  all  these  obstacles, 
that  the  doings  of  the  constitutional  convention 
were  rejected  in  the  mass. 

In  the  ensuing  April,  the  convention  reassembled, 
in  order  to  receive  the  unfavorable  verdict  of  the 
people  upon  its  proposed  amendments.  At  the 
11* 


126 


LIFE  OF 


suggestion  of  General  Pierce,  the  amendment 
abolishing  the  religious  test  was  again  brought 
forward,  and,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the 
leading  whig  members,  was  a second  time  sub- 
mitted to  the  people.  Nor  did  his  struggle  in 
behalf  of  this  enlightened  movement  terminate 
here.  At  the  democratic  caucus,  in  Concord, 
preliminary  to  the  town  meeting,  he  urged  upon 
his  political  friends  the  repeal  of  the  test,  as  a 
party  measure  ; and  again,  at  the  town  meeting 
itself,  while  the  balloting  was  going  forward,  he 
advocated  it  on  the  higher  ground  of  religious 
freedom,  and  of  reverence  for  what  is  inviolable  in 
the  human  soul.  Had  the  amendment  passed,  the 
credit  would  have  belonged  to  no  man  more  than 
to  General  Pierce  ; and  that  it  failed,  and  that  the 
free  constitution  of  New  Hampshire  is  still  dis- 
graced by  a provision  which  even  monarchical 
England  has  cast  off,  is  a responsibility  which  must 
rest  elsewhere  than  on  his  head. 

In  September,  1851,  died  that  eminent  statesman 
and  jurist,  Levi  Woodbury,  then  occupying  the 
elevated  post  of  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  The  connection  between  him  and 
General  Pierce,  beginning  in  the  early  youth  of 
the  latter,  had  been  sustained  through  all  the  sub- 
sequent years.  They  sat  together,  with  but  one 
intervening  chair  between,  in  the  national  Senate  ; 
they  were  always  advocates  of  the  same  great 
measures*  and  held,  through  life,  a harmony  of 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


113 


sundered  states,  to  redden  the  same  battle  fields 
with  their  kindred  blood,  to  unite  their  breath  into 
one  shout  of  victory,  and  perhaps  to  sleep,  side  by 
side,  with  the  same  sod  over  them.  Such  a man, 
with  such  hereditary  recollections,  and  such  a per- 
sonal experience,  must  not  narrow  himself  to  adopt 
the  cause  of  one  section  of  his  native  country 
against  another.  He  will  stand  up,  as  he  has  al- 
ways stood,  among  the  patriots  of  the  whole  land. 
And  if  the  work  of  anti-slavery  agitation,  which, 
it  is  undeniable,  leaves  most  men  who  earnestly 
engage  in  it  with  only  half  a country  in  their  af- 
fections — if  this  work  must  be  done,  let  others 
do  it. 

Those  northern  men,  therefore,  who  deem  the 
great  cause  of  human  welfare  all  represented  and 
involved  in  this  present  hostility  against  southern 
institutions,  and  who  conceive  that  the  world 
stands  still  except  so  far  as  that  goes  forward  — 
these,  it  may  be  allowed,  can  scarcely  give  their 
sympathy  or  their  confidence  to  the  subject  of  this 
memoir.  But  there  is  still  another  view,  and  prob- 
ably as  wise  a one.  It  looks  upon  slavery  as  one 
of  those  evils  which  divine  Providence  does  not 
leave  to  be  remedied  by  human  contrivances,  but 
which,  in  its  own  good  time,  by  some  means  im- 
possible to  be  anticipated,  but  of  the  simplest  and 
easiest  operation,  when  all  its  uses  shall  have  been 
fulfilled,  it  causes  to  vanish  like  a dream.  There 
is  no  instance,  in  all  history,  of  the  human  will 
10*  H 


114 


LIFE  OF 


and  intellect  having  perfected  any  great  moral  re- 
form by  methods  which  it  adapted  to  that  end ; 
but  the  progress  of  the  world,  at  every  step,  leaves 
some  evil  or  wrong  on  the  path  behind  it,  which 
the  wisest  of  mankind,  of  their  own  set  purpose, 
could  never  have  found  the  way  to  rectify.  What- 
ever contributes  to  the  great  cause  of  good,  con- 
tributes to  all  its  subdivisions  and  varieties ; and, 
on  this  score,  the  lover  of  his  race,  the  enthusiast, 
the  philanthropist  of  whatever  theory,  might  lend 
his  aid  to  put  a man,  like  the  one  before  us,  into 
the  leadership  of  the  world’s  affairs.  < 

How  firm  and  conscientious  was  General  Pierce’s 
support  of  the  Compromise,  may  be  estimated  from 
his  conduct  in  reference  to  the  reverend  John 
Atwood.  In  the  foregoing  pages  it  has  come  of- 
tener  in  our  way  to  illustrate  the  bland  and  pre- 
possessing features  of  General  Pierce’s  character, 
than  those  sterner  ones  which  must  necessarily 
form  the  bones,  so  to  speak,  the  massive  skeleton, 
of  any  man  who  retains  an  upright  attitude  amidst 
the  sinister  influences  of  public  life.  The  transac- 
tion now  alluded  to  affords  a favorable  opportunity 
for  indicating  some  of  these  latter  traits. 

In  October,  1850,  a democratic  convention,  held 
at  Concord,  nominated  Mr.  Atwood  as  the  party’s 
regular  candidate  for  governor.  The  Compromise, 
then  recent,  was  inevitably  a prominent  element 
in  the  discussions  of  the  convention ; and  a series 
of  resolutions  were  adopted,  bearing  reference  to 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


127 


opinion  and  action,  which  was  never  more  con- 
spicuous than  in  the  few  months  that  preceded 
Judge  Woodbury’s  death.  At  a meeting  of  the 
bar,  after  his  decease,  General  Pierce  uttered  some 
remarks,  full  of  sensibility,  in  which  he  referred  to 
the  circumstances  that  had  made  this  friendship 
an  inheritance  on  his  part.  Had  Judge  Woodbury 
survived,  it  is  not  improbable  that  his  more  ad- 
vanced age,  his  great  public  services,  and  equally 
distinguished  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  Union,  might 
have  placed  him  in  the  position  now  occupied  by 
the  subject  of  this  memoir.  Fortunate  the  state, 
which,  after  losing  such  a son,  can  still  point  to 
another,  not  less  worthy  to  take  upon  him  the 
charge  of  the  nation’s  welfare. 

We  have  now  finished  our  record  of  Franklin 
Pierce’s  life,  and  have  only  to  describe  the  posture 
of  affairs  which — without  his  own  purpose,  and 
against  his  wish  — has  placed  him  before  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  as  a candidate  for  the 
presidency. 


128 


LIFE  OF 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HIS  NOMINATION  FOR  THE  PRESIDENCY. 

On  the  12th  of  June,  1852,  the  democratic  na- 
tional convention  assembled  at  Baltimore,  in  order 
to  select  a candidate  for  the  presidency  of  the  Unit- 
ed States.  Many  names,  eminently  distinguished 
in  peace  and  war,  had  been  brought  before  the 
public,  during  several  months  previous ; and  among 
them,  though  by  no  means  occupying  a very  prom- 
inent place,  was  the  name  of  Franklin  Pierce.  In 
January  of  this  year,  the  democracy  of  New  Hamp- 
shire had  signified  its  preference  of  General  Pierce 
as  a presidential  candidate  in  the  approaching  can- 
vass— a demonstration  which  drew  from  him  the 
following  response,  addressed  to  his  friend,  Mr. 
Atherton : — 

“ I am  far  from  being  insensible  to  the  generous 
confidence,  so  often  manifested  towards  me  by  the 
people  of  this  state ; and  although  the  object  indi- 
cated in  the  resolution,  having  particular  reference 
to  myself,  be  not  one  of  desire  on  my  part,  the  ex- 
pression is  not  on  chat  account  less  gratifying. 

“ Doubtless  the  spontaneous  and  just  apprecia- 
tion of  an  intelligent  people  is  the  best  earthly 
reward  for  earnest  and  cheerful  services  rendered 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


129 


to  one’s  state  and  country  ; and  while  it  is  a mat- 
ter of  unfeigned  regret  that  my  life  has  been  so 
barren  of  usefulness,  I shall  ever  hold  this  and  sim- 
ilar tributes  among  my  most  cherished  recollections. 

“To  these,  my  sincere  and  grateful  acknowledg- 
ments, I desire  to  add,  that  the  same  motives  which 
induced  me,  several  years  ago,  to  retire  from  public 
life,  and  which,  since  that  time,  controlled  my  judg- 
ment in  this  respect,  now  impel  me  to  say,  that  the 
use  of  my  name,  in  any  event,  before  the  demo- 
cratic national  convention  at  Baltimore,  to  which 
you  are  a delegate,  would  be  utterly  repugnant  to 
my  tastes  and  wishes.” 

The  sentiments  expressed  in  the  above  letter 
were  genuine,  and  from  his  heart.  He  had  looked 
long  and  closely  at  the  effects  of  high  public  sta- 
tion on  the  character  and  happiness,  and  on  what 
is  the  innermost  and  dearest  part  of  a man’s  pos- 
sessions— his  independence  ; and  he  had  satisfied 
himself  that  office,  however  elevated,  should  be 
avoided  for  one’s  own  sake,  or  accepted  only  as  a 
good  citizen  would  make  any  other  sacrifice,  at  the 
call  and  at  the  need  of  his  country. 

As  the  time  for  the  assembling  of  the  national 
convention  drew  near,  there  were  other  sufficient 
indications  of  his  sincerity  in  declining  a stake  in 
the  great  game.  A circular  letter  was  addressed, 
by  Major  Scott  of  Virginia,  to  the  distinguished 
democrats  whose  claims  had  heretofore  been  pub- 
licly discussed,  requesting  a statement  of  their 

i 


130 


LIFE  OF 


opinions  on  several  points,  and  inquiring  what 
would  be  the  course  of  each  of  these  gentlemen,  in 
certain  contingencies,  in  case  of  his  attaining  the 
presidency.  These  queries,  it  may  be  presumed, 
were  of  such  a nature  that  General  Pierce  might 
have  answered  them,  had  he  seen  fit  to  do  so,  to 
the  satisfaction  of  Major  Scott  himself,  or  to  that 
of  the  southern  democratic  party,  whom  it  seemed 
his  purpose  to  represent.  With  not  more  than 
one  exception,  the  other  statesmen  and  soldiers,  to 
whom  the  circular  had  been  sent,  made  a response. 
General  Pierce  preserved  an  unbroken  silence.  It 
was  equivalent  to  the  withdrawal  of  all  claims 
which  he  might  be  supposed  to  possess,  in  refer- 
ence to  the  contemplated  office  ; and  he  thereby 
repeated,  to  the  delegates  of  the  national  party,  the 
same  avowal  of  distaste  for  public  life  which  he 
had  already  made  known  to  the  Democracy  of  his 
native  state.  He  had  thus  done  every  thing  in  his 
power,  actively  or  passively,  — every  thing  that  he 
could  have  done,  without  showing  such  an  esti- 
mate of  his  position  before  the  country  as  was  in- 
consistent with  the  modesty  of  his  character,  — to 
avoid  the  perilous  and  burdensome  honor  of  the 
candidacy. 

The  convention  met,  at  the  date  above  men- 
tioned, and  continued  its  sessions  during  four 
days.  Thirty-five  ballotings  were  held,  with  a con- 
tinually decreasing  prospect  that  the  friends  of  any 
one  of  the  gentlemen  hitherto  prominent  before 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


131 


the  people  would  succeed  in  obtaining  the  two 
thirds  vote  that  was  requisite  for  a nomination. 
Thus  far,  not  a vote  had  been  thrown  for  General 
Pierce  ; but,  at  the  thirty-sixth  ballot,  the  delega- 
tion of  old  Virginia  brought  forward  his  name.  In 
the  course  of  several  more  trials,  his  strength  in- 
creased, very  gradually  at  first,  but  afterwards  with 
a growing  impetus,  until,  at  the  forty-ninth  ballot, 
the  votes  were  for  Franklin  Pierce  two  hundred 
and  eighty-two,  and  eleven  for  all  other  candidates. 
Thus  Franklin  Pierce  became  the  nominee  of  the 
convention  ; and  as  quickly  as  the  lightning  flash 
could  blazen  it  abroad,  his  name  was  on  every 
tongue,  from  end  to  end  of  this  vast  country. 
Within  an  hour  he  grew  to  be  illustrious. 

It  would  be  a pretension,  which  we  do  not  mean 
to  put  forward,  to  assert  that,  whether  considering 
the  length  and  amount  of  his  public  services,  or 
his  prominence  before  the  country,  General  Pierce 
stood  on  equal  ground  with  several  of  the  distin- 
guished men,  whose  claims,  to  use  the  customary 
phrase,  had  been  rejected  in  favor  of  his  own.  But 
no  man,  be  his  public  services  or  sacrifices  what 
they  might,  ever  did  or  ever  could  possess,  in  the 
slightest  degree,  what  we  may  term  a legitimate 
claim  to  be  elevated  to  the  rulership  of  a free  peo- 
ple. The  nation  would  degrade  itself,  and  violate 
every  principle  upon  which  its  institutions  are 
founded,  by  offering  its  majestic  obedience  to  one 
of  its  citizens  as  a reward  for  whatever  splendor 


132 


LIFE  OF 


of  achievement.  The  conqueror  may  assert  a claim, 
such  as  it  is,  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  whom 
he  subjugates  ; but,  with  us  Americans,  when  a 
statesman  comes  to  the  chief  direction  of  affairs, 
it  is  at  the  summons  of  the  nation,  addressed  to 
the  servant  whom  it  deems  best  fitted  to  spend  his 
wisdom,  his  strength,  and  his  life,  in  its  behalf. 
On  this  principle,  which  is  obviously  the  correct 
one,  a candidate’s  previous  services  are  entitled  to 
consideration  only  as  they  indicate  the  qualities 
which  may  enable  him  to  render  higher  services 
in  the  position  which  his  countrymen  choose  that 
he  shall  occupy.  What  he  has  done  is  of  no  im- 
portance, except  as  proving  what  he  can  do.  And 
it  is  on  this  score,  because  they  see  in  his  public 
course  the  irrefragable  evidences  of  patriotism,  in- 
tegrity, and  courage,  and  because  they  recognize 
in  him  the  noble  gift  of  natural  authority,  and  have 
a prescience  of  the  stately  endowment  of  adminis- 
trative genius,  that  his  fellow-citizens  are  about  to 
summon  Franklin  Pierce  to  the  presidency.  To 
those  who  know  him  well,  the  event  comes,  not 
like  accident,  but  as  a consummation  which  might 
have  been  anticipated,  from  its  innate  fitness,  and 
as  the  final  step  of  a career  which,  all  along,  has 
tended  thitherward. 

It  is  not  as  a reward  that  he  will  take  upon  him 
the  mighty  burden  of  this  office,  of  which  the  toil 
and  awful  responsibility  whiten  the  statesman’s 
head,  and  in  which,  as  in  more  than  one  instance 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


133 


we  have  seen,  the  warrior  encounters  a deadlier 
risk  than  in  the  battle  field.  When  General  Pierce 
received  the  news  of  his  nomination,  it  affected 
him  with  no  thrill  of  joy,  but  a sadness,  which,  for 
many  days,  was  perceptible  in  his  deportment.  It 
awoke  in  his  heart  the  sense  of  religious  depend- 
ence — a sentiment  that  has  been  growing  contin- 
ually stronger,  through  all  the  trials  and  experiences 
of  his  life ; and  there  was  nothing  feigned  in  that 
passage  of  his  beautiful  letter,  accepting  the  nomi- 
nation, in  which  he  expresses  his  reliance  upon 
heavenly  support. 

The  committee,  appointed  by  the  Baltimore  con- 
vention, conveyed  to  him  the  intelligence  of  his 
nomination  in  the  following  terms : — 

“ A national  convention  of  the  democratic  re- 
publican party,  which  met  in  Baltimore  on  the 
first  Tuesday  in  June,  unanimously  nominated  you 
as  a candidate  for  the  high  trust  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  We  have  been  delegated  to 
acquaint  you  with  the  nomination,  and  earnestly 
to  request  that  you  will  accept  it.  Persuaded  as 
we  are  that  this  office  should  never  be  pursued  by 
an  unchastened  ambition,  it  cannot  be  refused  by 
a dutiful  patriotism. 

“ The  circumstances  under  which  you  will  be 
presented  for  the  canvass  of  your  countrymen 
seem  to  us  propitious  to  the  interests  which  the 
constitution  intrusts  to  our  Federal  Union,  and 
must  be  auspicious  to  your  own  name.  You  come 
12 


134 


LIFE  OF 


before  the  people  without  the  impulse  of  personal 
wishes,  and  free  from  selfish  expectations.  You 
are  identified  with  none  of  the  distractions  which 
have  recently  disturbed  our  country,  whilst  you  are 
known  to  be  faithful  to  the  constitution  — to  all 
its  guaranties  and  compromises.  You  will  be  free 
to  exercise  your  tried  abilities,  within  the  path  of 
duty,  in  protecting  that  repose  we  happily  enjoy, 
and  in  giving  efficacy  and  control  to  those  cardinal 
principles  that  have  already  illustrated  the  party 
which  has  now  selected  you  as  its  leader  — princi- 
ples that  regard  the  security  and  prosperity  of  the 
whole  country,  and  the  paramount  power  of  its 
laws,  as  indissolubly  associated  with  the  perpetuity 
of  our  civil  and  religious  liberties. 

“ The  convention  did  not  pretermit  the  duty  of 
reiterating  those  principles,  and  you  will  find  them 
prominently  set  forth  in  the  resolutions  it  adopted. 
To  these  we  respectfully  invite  your  attention. 

“ It  is  firmly  believed  that  to  your  talents  and 
patriotism  the  security  of  our  holy  Union,  with  its 
expanded  and  expanding  interests,  may  be  wisely 
trusted,  and  that,  amid  all  the  perils  which  may 
assail  the  constitution,  you  will  have  the  heart  to 
love  and  the  arm  to  defend  it.” 

"We  quote  likewise  General  Pierce’s  reply:  — 

“ 1 have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  your  personal 
kindness  in  presenting  me,  this  day,  your  letter, 
officially  informing  me  of  my  nomination,  by  the 
democratic  national  convention,  as  a candidate  for 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


135 


the  presidency  of  the  United  States.  The  surprise 
with  which  I received  the  intelligence  of  my  nom- 
ination was  not  unmingled  with  painful  solici- 
tude ; and  yet  it  is  proper  for  me  to  say  that  the 
manner  in  which  it  was  conferred  was  peculiarly 
gratifying. 

“ The  delegation  from  New  Hampshire,  with  all 
the  glow  of  state  pride,  and  with  all  the  warmth 
of  personal  regard,  would  not  have  submitted  my 
name  to  the  convention,  nor  would  they  have  cast 
a vote  for  me,  under  circumstances  other  than  those 
which  occurred. 

“ I shall  always  cherish  with  pride  and  gratitude 
the  recollection  of  the  fact,  that  the  voice  which 
first  pronounced,  and  pronounced  alone,  came  from 
the  Mother  of  States  — a pride  and  gratitude  rising 
above  any  consequences  that  can  betide  me  per- 
sonally. May  I not  regard  it  as  a fact  pointing 
to  the  overthrow  of  sectional  jealousies,  and  look- 
ing to  the  permanent  life  and  vigor  of  the  Union, 
cemented  by  the  blood  of  those  who  have  passed 
to  their  reward  ? — a Union  wonderful  in  its  for- 
mation, boundless  in  its  hopes,  amazing  in  its 
destiny. 

“ I accept  the  nomination,  relying  upon  an  abid- 
ing devotion  to  the  interests,  honor,  and  glory  of 
the  whole  country,  but,  above  and  beyond  all,  upon 
a Power  superior  to  all  human  might  — a Power 
which,  from  the  first  gun  of  the  revolution,  in 
every  crisis  through  which  we  have  passed,  in  every 


136 


LIFE  OF 


hour  of  acknowledged  peril,  when  the  dark  clouds 
had  shut  down  over  us,  has  interposed  as  if  to 
baffle  human  wisdom,  outmarch  human  forecast, 
and  bring  out  of  darkness  the  rainbow  of  prom- 
ise. Weak  myself,  faith  and  hope  repose  there  in 
security. 

“ I accept  the  nomination  upon  the  platform 
adopted  by  the  convention,  not  because  this  is 
expected  of  me  as  a candidate,  but  because  the 
principles  it  embraces  command  the  approbation 
of  my  judgment ; and  with  them,  I believe  I can 
safely  say,  there  has  been  no  word  nor  act  of  my 
life  in  conflict.” 

The  news  of  his  nomination  went  abroad  over 
the  Union,  and,  far  and  wide,  there  came  a re- 
sponse, in  which  was  distinguishable  a truer  appre- 
ciation of  some  of  General  Pierce’s  leading  traits 
than  could  have  been  anticipated,  considering  the 
unobtrusive  tenor  of  his  legislative  life,  and  the 
lapse  of  time  since  he  had  entirely  withdrawn 
himself  from  the  nation’s  eye.  It  was  the  marvel- 
lous and  mystic  influence  of  character,  in  regard 
to  which  the  judgment  of  the  people  is  so  seldom 
found  erroneous,  and  which  conveys  the  perception 
of  itself  through  some  medium  higher  and  deeper 
than  the  intellect.  Every  where  the  country  knows 
that  a man  of  steadfast  will,  true  heart,  and  gener- 
ous qualities  has  been  brought  forward,  to  receive 
the  suffrages  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

He  comes  before  the  people  of  the  United  States 


FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


137 


at  a remarkable  era  in  the  history  of  this  country 
and  of  the  world.  The  two  great  parties  of  the 
nation  appear  — at  least  to  an  observer  somewhat 
removed  from  both  — to  have  nearly  merged  into 
one  another ; for  they  preserve  the  attitude  of  po- 
litical antagonism  rather  through  the  effect  of  their 
old  organizations,  than  because  any  great  and  rad- 
ical principles  are  at  present  in  dispute  between 
them.  The  measures  advocated  by  the  one  party, 
and  resisted  by  the  other,  through  a long  series  of 
years,  have  now  ceased  to  be  the  pivots  on  which 
the  election  turns.  The  prominent  statesmen,  so 
long  identified  with  those  measures,  wall  henceforth 
relinquish  their  controlling  influence  over  public 
affairs.  Both  parties,  it  may  likewise  be  said,  are 
united  in  one  common  purpose  — that  of  preserv- 
ing our  sacred  Union,  as  the  immovable  basis  from 
which  the  destinies,  not  of  America  alone,  but  of 
mankind  at  large,  may  be  earned  upward  and 
consummated.  And  thus  men  stand  together,  in 
unwonted  quiet  and  harmony,  awaiting  the  new 
movement  in  advance  which  all  these  tokens  in- 
dicate. 

It  remains  for  the  citizens  of  this  great  country 
to  decide,  within  the  next  few  weeks,  whether  they 
will  retard  the  steps  of  human  progress  by  placing 
at  its  head  an  illustrious  soldier,  indeed,  a pa- 
triot, and  one  indelibly  stamped  into  the  history  of 
the  past,  but  who  has  already  done  his  work,  and 
12* 


138 


LIFE  OF  FRANKLIN  PIERCE. 


has  not  in  him  the  spirit  of  the  present  or  of  the 
coming  time,  — or  whether  they  will  put  their  trust 
in  a new  man,  whom  a life  of  energy  and  various 
activity  has  tested,  but  not  worn  out,  and  advance 
with  him  into  the  auspicious  epoch  upon  which 
we  are  about  to  enter. 


NOTES. 


A. 

We  have  done  far  less  than  justice  to  Franklin  Pierce’s  col- 
lege standing,  in  our  statement  on  page  16.  Some  circum- 
stances connected  with  this  matter  are  too  characteristic  not 
to  be  recorded. 

During  the  first  two  years,  Pierce  was  extremely  inattentive 
to  his  college  duties,  bestowing  only  such  modicum  of  time 
upon  them  as  was  requisite  to  supply  the  merest  superficial 
acquaintance  with  the  course  of  study,  for  the  recitation  room. 
The  consequence  was,  that,  when  the  relative  standing  of  the 
members  of  the  class  was  first  authoritatively  ascertained,  in 
the  junior  year,  he  found  himself  occupying  precisely  the  low- 
est position  in  point  of  scholarship.  In  the  first  mortification 
of  wounded  pride,  he  resolved  never  to  attend  another  recita- 
tion, and  accordingly  absented  himself  from  college  exercises 
of  all  kinds  for  several  days,  expecting  and  desiring  that  some 
form  of  punishment,  such  as  suspension  or  expulsion,  would  be 
the  result.  The  faculty  of  the  college,  however,  with  a wise 
lenity,  took  no  notice  of  this  behavior  ; and  at  last,  having  had 
time  to  grow  cool,  and  moved  by  the  grief  of  his  friend  Little 
and  another  classmate,  Pierce  determined  to  resume  the  routine 
of  college  duties.  “ But,”  said  he  to  his  friends,  “ if  I do  so, 
you  shall  see  a change  ! ” 

Accordingly,  from  that  time  forward,  he  devoted  himself  to 
study.  His  mind,  having  run  wild  for  so  long  a period,  could 
be  reclaimed  only  by  the  severest  efforts  of  an  iron  resolution ; 


140 


NOTES. 


and  for  three  months  afterwards,  he  rose  at  four  in  the  morning, 
toiled  all  day  over  his  books,  and  retired  only  at  midnight, 
allowing  himself  but  four  hours  for  sleep.  With  habit  and 
exercise,  he  acquired  command  over  his  intellectual  powers,  and 
was  no  longer  under  the  necessity  of  application  so  intense. 
But  from  the  moment  when  he  made  his  resolve  until  the  close 
of  his  college  life,  he  never  incurred  a censure,  never  was  ab- 
sent (and  then  unavoidably)  but  from  two  college  exercises, 
never  went  into  the  recitation  room  without  a thorough  acquaint- 
ance with  the  subject  to  be  recited,  and  finally  graduated  as  the 
third  scholar  of  his  class.  Nothing  save  the  low  standard  of 
his  previous  scholarship  prevented  his  taking  a yet  higher  rank. 

The  moral  of  this  little  story  lies  in  the  stern  and  continued 
exercise  of  self-controlling  will,  which  redeemed  him  from  indo- 
lence, completely  changed  the  aspect  of  his  character,  and  made 
this  the  turning  point  of  his  life. 


B. 

In  the  dearth  of  other  matter  with  which  to  carry  on  the  war, 
the  whig  journals  lay  great  stress  on  the  responsibility  which 
they  allege  against  General  Pierce  and  his  political  friends  for 
the  continued  existence  of  the  religious  test  in  the  constitution 
of  New  Hampshire.  Since  our  own  remarks  on  this  subject 
were  in  type,  we  have  examined  a pamphlet,  from  the  press  of 
the  Boston  Post,  in  which  the  question  is  thoroughly  discussed, 
and  facts  adduced  which  irrefragably  prove  the  following  posi- 
tions, viz. : — 

“ That  the  exclusion  clauses  in  the  New  Hampshire  consti- 
tution were  put  into  it  in  1784,  before  parties  had  formed,  and 
were  retained  in  it  in  1792,  when  the  federal  or  whig  party  was 
in  power  ; and  that  to  expunge  them,  it  requires  that  a conven- 
tion be  called,  and  that  a vote  of  two  thirds  of  the  people  should 
accept  the  amendments  it  proposes,  while  it  is  made  a duty  of 


NOTES. 


141 


the  people  to  vote  on  the  question  of  calling  a convention  every 
seven  years : 

“ That  the  democratic  journals  have  denounced  these  exclu- 
sion clauses  as  contrary  to  every  principle  of  reason,  justice,  and 
common  sense,  and  constantly  advocated  a revision  of  the  con- 
stitution : 

“ That  the  leading  democratic  politicians  have  taken  the  same 
course  in  their  political  speeches  ; and  instances  are  specified 
where  they  have,  in  political  meetings,  gone  from  town  to  town 
advocating  a convention: 

“ That  democratic  county  and  state  conventions  have,  in 
formal  resolutions,  unqualifiedly  repudiated  these  clauses,  and 
declared  in  favor  of  a revision  of  the  constitution ; and  these 
resolutions  are  quoted : 

“ That  so  united  was  thought  to  be  democratic  public  opinion 
against  them,  and  so  thoroughly  was  it  in  favor  of  a revision  of 
the  constitution,  that  its  leading  organ,  the  N.  H.  Patriot,  Octo- 
ber 17, 1844,  declared  that  the  universal  sense  of  the  democratic 
party  was  against  them,  and  asserted,  October  31,  1844,  that  it 
could  say,  with  truth,  there  was  not  one  intelligent  member  of 
the  democratic  party  who  was  not  in  favor  of  a revision  of  the 
constitution : 

“ That  in  the  convention  of  1850,  called  to  revise  the  consti- 
tution, Judge  Woodbury  and  General  Pierce  made  speeches 
against  this  test ; and  in  a second  session,  after  the  amendments 
had  been  rejected,  that  they  succeeded  in  getting  the  question 
submitted,  together  with  another  question,  to  the  people : 

“ That  in  all  these  movements  General  Pierce  actively  par- 
ticipated : that  in  the  canvass  of  1844,  he  went  from  town  to 
town  urging  a revision  of  the  constitution,  and  that  year  was 
denounced  by  the  whigs  because  he  advised  all  the  democratic 
votes  to  be  printed  in  favor  of  a call  for  a convention : that  in 
1845,  he,  with  others,  in  a democratic  convention,  reported  a 
resolution,  which  passed,  repudiating  the  tests  : that  in  1850,  he 
labored  in  the  convention,  in  both  sessions,  to  repeal  it : that  in 
the  caucus  of  the  democrats  at  Concord,  and  in  town  meeting 


142 


NOTES. 


in  Concord,  he  made  speeches  in  favor  of  blotting  out  the  test : 
that  he  has  uniformly,  by  pen  and  speech,  denounced  it  as  a 
stigma  on  the  state : 

“ That  the  whig  assertion,  that  the  democratic  party  could 
every  seven  years  have  repealed  this  test  ‘ for  the  last  sixty 
years,’  or  ‘at  any  time  the  last  quarter  of  a century,’  is  an 
enormous  falsehood  ; for  facts  show  that  it  was  not  until  the 
sixth  septennial  period,  or  1829,  that  the  democrats  obtained 
even  a majority  ascendency : that  within  twenty-five  years  there 
have  been  two  whig  governors : that  in  1838  their  majority  was 
but  2800,  in  1843  but  1600,  and  in  1846  they  were  in  a minor- 
ity, and  that,  in  a contest,  they  never  have  had  the  two  thirds 
vote  required  to  alter  the  constitution : and  that,  at  the  only 
period  when  amendments  to  the  constitution  have  been  voted 
on  since  1792,  that  is,  on  the  amendments  of  1850,  the  demo- 
cratic party  lacked  ten  thousand  votes  of  having  two  thirds : 

“ That  whig  editorials,  during  the  canvass  of  1844,  previous 
to  the  convention  of  1850,  during  the  sittings  of  the  first  session 
of  that  convention,  and  at  its  second  session,  — all  which  are 
quoted,  and  the  dates  of  which  are  given,  — either  were  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  call  of  a convention,  or  threatened  that,  if  amend- 
ments approved  by  them  were  not  adopted,  opposition  would  be 
made  to  all  amendments,  or  endeavored  to  array  the  prejudices 
of  the  people  against  the  convention  and  its  amendments,  on 
the  ground  that  of  its  forty  thousand  dollars  expense,  and,  for- 
sooth, because  the  convention  chose  to  pass  a series  of  compro- 
mise resolutions  introduced  by  General  Pierce.  There  is  the 
language  of  the  whig  editorials,  and  it  speaks  for  itself.  All 
this  shows  conclusively  that  while  the  democratic  party,  in  all 
the  various  ways  it  could,  was  denouncing  the  tests  and  urging 
a convention,  the  whig  party  was  endeavoring  to  turn  democratic 
action  to  party  account  There  is  the  record,  and  its  force  can- 
not be  avoided.  The  inference  is  a just  and  a fair  one  — had 
the  whig  organs  forgot  party,  the  tests  would  have  been  abol- 
ished ! 

“ Such  is  the  conclusiveness  with  which  the  democratic  party 


NOTES. 


143 


and  General  Pierce  can  be  vindicated  from  this  charge  of  intol- 
erance, and  such  is  the  position  of  the  party  that  makes  this 
charge ! But,  setting  all  this  aside,  is  it  too  much  to  invoke 
the  candid  and  the  patriotic,  of  all  parties,  to  brand  this  business 
as  disgraceful  to  those  who  engage  in  it ; and  to  denounce  this 
special  appeal  to  a sect  in  religion,  in  order  to  get  its  members 
to  vote  a certain  way  in  politics,  as  a gross  violation  of  the 
spirit  of  our  institutions,  and  a wanton  insult  alike  to  the  intel- 
ligence and  patriotism  of  American  citizens  ? This  desperate 
and  unparalleled  electioneering  experiment,  for  many  reasons, 
deserves  a disgraceful  defeat. 

“ Again  we  ask,  As  truth  makes  its  way  in  the  track  of  false- 
hood, will  not  the  base  charge,  instead  of  injuring  General 
Pierce  or  the  democratic  party,  recoil  ■with  fearful  effect  on 
those  who  utter  it  P” 

At  the  town  meeting  in  Concord,  wffiile  the  votes  were  being 
cast  on  the  amendments  proposed  by  the  constitutional  conven- 
tion, General  Pierce  addressed  his  fellow-citizens  with  reference 
to  the  test.  His  speech  is  described  as  one  which,  for  impas- 
sioned eloquence  and  power,  could  scarcely  be  surpassed  ; and 
it  is  difficult  to  imagine  a stronger  expression  of  abhorrence  for 
the  obnoxious  law  than  is  contained  in  the  following  imper- 
fectly-reported passage  : — 

“ Can  it  be  possible,”  said  he,  “ that  the  people  of  New  Hamp- 
shire will  vote  to  retain  a feature  in  its  fundamental  law,  in- 
grafted there  under  peculiar  circumstances,  repugnant  to  the 
plainest  ideas  of  justice  and  equality,  repugnant  to  the  whole 
scope  and  tenor  of  the  constitution,  upon  which  it  stands  as  a 
fungus  — dead,  to  be  sure,  but  still  there,  a blot  and  deformity, 
obnoxious  in  the  last  degree  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which 
we  live  ? How  can  we  say  that  our  land  is  the  asylum  of  the 
oppressed  of  other  countries,  when  we  fail  to  extend  over  them 
the  shield  of  equal  rights,  and  say  to  them,  There  is  the  panoply 
under  which,  so  far  as  the  dearest  and  most  sacred  of  all  rights 
is  concerned,  you  may  shelter  yourselves  ? I love  and  revere 
the  faith  of  my  Protestant  fathers  ; but  do  not  Martin  Lawler 


144 


NOTES. 


and  his  countrymen,  now  near  me,  and  who  have  this  day  exer- 
cised the  rights  of  freemen,  revere  and  cling  to  the  faith  of  their 
fathers  P Are  you  to  tell  them  that  they  can  vote  for  you,  but 
are  to  be  excluded  from  the  privilege  of  being  voted  for?  that 
while  you  tax  them  to  maintain  your  government,  they  shall  not 
be  eligible  to  positions  that  control  taxation  ? Shame  upon 
such  a provision,  while  we  boast  of  equal  rights  ! 1 hope  this 

provision  of  our  constitution  receives  the  deliberate  reprobation 
of  every  man  now  in  this  hall.  But  if  I am  mistaken  in  this,  it 
is  due  to  the  honor  of  the  state,  it  is  due  to  the  plainest  dictates 
of  justice,  that  whoever  may  favor  this  test  should  state  the  rea- 
sons upon  which  he  relies.  For  one,  I never  think  of  it  without 
a deep  sense  of  regret,  and,  I may  add,  of  humiliation  for  my 
native  state.” 


THE  END. 


